Nano Effect: The Collector Crysis
by LEGION001
Summary: It's been two years since the rogue Spectre Saren was brought to justice by Commander Vanyali Shepard and CryNet Phantom Wraith. Now Commander Shepard is being brought back, can she come to terms with her death and more importantly can she help Wraith come to terms with his? Sequel, Shepard/OC Rated M for Language and Violence.
1. Prologue

The door slid open with a soft hiss as she approached, granting her access to the observation room within. Shepard's steps faltered for just a second as she recognized the scene that was being displayed on a large monitor dominating the far wall of the room.

"Torfan? Who allowed him to go through Torfan? He shouldn't be doing any sort of training, much less going through that!"

CryNet Phantom Nova Terra turned to look at the Human spectre. "No one allowed him to do anything, but you try saying no to him." She glanced over at one of the monitors where a man in a Nanosuit was ruthlessly laying waste to a group of Batarian slavers.

Shepard grimaced. "When I heard that he was in the training room I thought he would be doing something tame, not Torfan. That's one of the more difficult training regimes in the alliance for good reason."

"Here as well. It's one of the more difficult _team_ simulations. I guess he's decided that there's suddenly an 'I' in team."

"CABAL, end the session, he shouldn't be doing anything nearly as strenuous as that. He was dead a week ago, he needs time to recover."

"I don't think I will." The synthetic voice of CABAL answered. "The operative has been massively outperforming all previous records. His vital statistics are all within normal ranges, I am not about to put a stop to the most glorious display of destruction I've seen in a long time without good reason."

"He's not wrong." Nova sighed looking at the screen "I've never seen an individual phantom take on what he is and win."

Glancing at Nova, Shepard approached the monitor and watched as a squad of ten batarians were butchered at the hands of a single person within the space of as many seconds. "I've never seen him be that direct when engaging a hostile position, usually he likes to use stealth a lot more."

"He already did that. Twice." Nova commented, "I have a feeling he wanted to shake things up a bit."

"He already did two sessions before this?" Shepard asked incredulously.

Nova nodded slowly "Yep. First time he managed to get all the way inside and then took out the commanders without once being detected. The second he fought his way through with less stealth and more mobility."

"And now he's just slaughtering them." Shepard murmured as a batarian head was smashed into a wall so hard its skull caved in, painting the metal with gore.

* * *

I stepped back from the batarian, leaving him leaning against the wall, his head split open like a watermelon and hefted my SCAR. My heavy footsteps were accompanied by the distant sound of gunfire and explosions that echoed their way from the surface through the winding tunnels that made up the vast majority of the base. A single grenade, fired from the underslung launcher of my scar sailed into a nearby hallway, vanishing from view as it bounced around a corner and a moment later a concussive blast intercepted the group of batarians that had been rushing to meet me. I stepped around the corner to see a single batarian left standing having been trailing slightly behind his men. I gunned him down before he could even register that I had come around the corner.

The moans of pain from the few batarians who had survived the initial blast caught my attention. One of them, who looked to be around twenty years old, was crying for his parents as he slowly dragged himself away from me. I ended his life with a quick stomp to the back of the neck, snapping it with a harsh crack. The other survivors were executed in a similar manner putting an end to their lives for certain. Without a single backward glance, I continued on my way deeper into the base.

My eyes flicked to a wall ahead of me, through which I could see the hexagon that indicated the locations of multiple people ahead. I scanned each individual marker, connecting to their hardsuit computers through their IFF systems and allowing me to gain valuable information about the wearers. It was amazing what kind of access a skilled computers expert, or someone with an advanced artificial intelligence, could get. Six batarians, armed with a variety of weapons including a mounted heavy machine gun and an automated turret to back them up. Too bad their backup would soon turn sides as SECOND interfaces with it and initiated TRAITOR algorithms.

There was a single beep from the turret, lost in the distant sound of battle, as it acquired its target. Without any further warning it opened fire. Heavy high caliber rounds tore into the back of the first batarian, piercing through his shields in less than a second. Before the other occupants in the room could do little more than gape the turret killed two more batarians. A fourth fell scrambling for cover, leaving only two shouting at each other as they tried to process what had happened. Fortunately, they didn't need to ponder that puzzle for long as I strode up to the first who had stopped looking down the hallway allowing me to walk up to him and twist his neck around until it snapped violently leaving him with his head on backwards.

A shout of rage followed by a series of gunshots sent the last batarian into a wall after he had tried to charge me, having forgotten that the turret was still active. I crossed the room, leaving footprints in the blood that was slowly covering the floor as I continued on my way.

Halfway to the main command bunker, I stopped. In my motion sensor I could see a new, unknown contact moving quickly towards me down a side corridor nearby. There were only a few things that could move as fast as that while being small enough to fit in the varying sizes of the corridors. I glanced behind me just as a figure in heavy Power armor charged in. They were wearing pitch black GHOST armor with glowing red lights gleaming from the multiple optical sensors. A massive burst of speed brought on by my suit allowed me to sprint forward ducking underneath their rifle to send a resounding kick to the operatives midsection, likely completely driving the air from their lungs.

The soldier wasn't brought down however and I flipped over their head smashing my knee into their temple as I went. A punch was easily redirected and with an empowered yank, I pulled them off of their feet. As they hung in midair for but a split second I pulled my combat knife from my harness and drove it tip first between the plating at the neck.

"That wasn't even close this time." Vanyali Shepard wheezed as her faceplate retracted back into her helmet revealing her face, eyes streaming from the kick I gave her.

"Heh, I've gotten an upgrade or two since then. My reaction time is through the roof. Sometimes it feels like I can see the bullets flying past me."

"Not bullets." She chuckled, her gasping slowly giving way to normal, if slightly laboured, breathing.

I shrugged "I find 'shards of metal' too much of a mouthful."

She smiled and reached up to grasp my arm. "You kind of ruined my plans. I had wanted to get you to rest by catching you off guard and beating you, or at least make it a hard fought win. You beating me so resoundingly doesn't really give me much leverage."

I tilted my head "Best two out of three?"

She nodded once and was shrouded in an aura of biotic energy as her grip tightened on my arm. "Sure."

Her sudden attempt at a throw was abruptly cut off as I punched her soundly in the stomach and in the moment that it took her to recover I clasped my hands behind her and with a powerful heave tossed her over her. As she scrambled to her feet I planted my foot on her back and stabbed her once in the back of the neck.

"A suplex? Seriously?" She asked gasping as she turned to face me.

I shrugged "If I see an opportunity to do one, hey who am I to do something else?"

She shook her head in exasperation. "Fine, you win two. Another?"

"Sounds like a plan. CABAL, let's get a change of scenery."

* * *

"Score, nine to zero. Shall I reset the simulation?"

"No. Shut it down. We're finished for today."

I glanced at where Vanyali was kneeling, resting her exhausted and likely bruised body. "You go on. I'm going to do a few more runs."

Vanyali looked up at me, green eyes studying me. "Come on. You've been training for hours. You should be resting."

I shook my head "I've been cleared and I need to find my new limits."

A brief look of frustration danced across Vanyali's face before it softened "Look, I've been given a little time off, but that's not gonna last long until either the Alliance or the council are going to send me off again. I'd like to spend as much of that time with you. And preferably not just training." She cut in before I could remind her that we had just trained together.

I pondered her words for a few seconds in silence before acquiescing. "Alright. Just let me do one quick-"

"No." Vanyali interrupted me. "You've done plenty of training already and you will be able to do plenty more later. I nearly lost you before, I'm not going to let you squander any time we have left together training."

I lowered my head slowly and nodded. "Ok."

Vanyali drew herself up. "Well, you don't sound very excited. Was that night after virmire just a one-time thing then?"

I snapped my gaze over to her, eyes wide. "What? No- it's just-" I broke off what I was about to say looking down at my suited hands and arms and tried swallowing heavily only for that to fail as my esophagus muscles had been largely been broken down by my suit, leaving only a hollow tube through which air could flow. I absently raised a hand to my throat as I stared off into the distance.

"What is it?" Vanyali asked her irritation having vanished as she walked up to me looking concerned.

"I'm trapped," I said hollowly. "Trapped inside this suit, unable to take it off. I'm a corpse walking. I'm a zombie."

"No, you're not!" Vanyali grabbed my shoulders fiercely. "Don't believe that. You're still you! You were dead, yes, but now you're alive." She placed her palm on my chest, fingers splayed out slightly. "You still have your heart."

I looked away and glanced to the side where I brought up a hologram of a human body along with all of its inner organs. Vanyali tilted her head to the side when she noticed it and raised an eyebrow.

"That is a normal human body." Then I brought up another hologram next to it. "That's mine. Take note of the lack of a normal heart, it's a nice, efficient motor pump now." I said hoarsely "My right lung is being replaced, it was too damaged. I no longer have human skin, what you see now is my skin, below that, is muscle." I looked at Vanyali who had closed her eyes sometime during my words. "My brain was dead, without oxygen for days. The damage should have been total, there shouldn't have been any coming back from that. Yet here I am. I wonder how long it will take before it replaces other organs."

Vanyali shifted her weight slightly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you back. I didn't quite realize what your suit would do exactly."

I sighed "I would have done the same. And that scares me, because if the Reapers are coming, if there's another ceph outbreak, then we'll need all the strength we can get. If we could prevent losses make it so that it would take an overwhelming amount of force to take down phantoms… Then maybe we just need more than what we just are now. Maybe Hargreave is right." I muttered quietly.

"Hargreave? Where have I heard that name before?"

"Likely a few places. He is one of the lead researchers on the Nanosuit. It used to be Me, Hargreave and Rasch. I dropped out of the lead research position with the launch of the Phantom program. Hargreave did end up losing some friends when he began saying that we needed to remove the safeguards from the N-Suit 2.0. Said that we needed our phantoms to be the best they could be. I wonder if he knew something that we don't or rather didn't."

"Come on. We've been standing here for a while, let's get somewhere a little more comfortable." Vanyali stretched with a groan. "My joints are popping in places I didn't know they could. Either you've improved since the last time we dueled or you were going easy on me then."

As we walked away toward the exit I shook my head "Sorry. But I wasn't going easy either time. The improved connection to my suit has directly increased my combat and tactical skills. Reflexes, speed, and battlefield awareness have all increased. I don't even need to look at my HUD, I just know everything on there. Thermal capacity, Enemy locations, friendly locations, ideal firing solutions-"

"Alright, Mr. Supersoldier. No need to list all the ways us mortals are inferior to you." Vanyali said with a smile elbowing me lightly in the side as we exited the simulation room.

* * *

"So what's with all of the swords?"

I glanced over at the woman who was currently examining my collection of medieval weaponry. "They're fun, a hobby of sorts. I learned sword fighting when I was younger, before the entire nanosuit thing, out of interest and a way to get some exercise. My interest only grew the more I learned and I got Nova and a couple other phantoms into it as well."

Vanyali arched an eyebrow at me "And then you bought an entire armory worth of Swords, Axes, maces…?"

I walked up beside her to view the wall that had my collection on display "Course. It's one thing to train with replica's in the simulator, another thing entirely to train with steel in reality."

She glanced at me "You train with these? Isn't that dangerous?"

I nodded "Sure, you can break bones if you get hit hard enough, but we only train with unsharpened blades and protective gear or with synthetic blades where one would have to _really_ try to severely hurt someone, or smash someone with the crossguard."

"You use the crossguard to fight?" Shepard echoed softly.

"Do we use it in general practice?" I shook my head "No. But the Mordhau is a very valid method of attack, especially if the opponent is wearing heavy armor. A good way to pierce plate armor is to just say forget it with a blade that isn't going to be doing much and just grab the blade with both hands and smash them with the heavy end." I said drawing a longsword from its sheath on the wall. "That or half-swording where you grasp your blade by the hilt with one hand and the blade with the other and use it in a manner similar to a very short staff. In honesty, we only really ever use the Mordhau as a joke or when we're doing exaggerated moves. Half-swording is far more commonly used."

"Mordhau, is that german?" She asked testing the word and glancing at me.

I nodded "Yeah, I learned from a german, extremely talented, very good at all sorts of martial arts, but the longsword was his specialty. All the terminology I learned was in german and I kinda just never changed that. Here." I extended the sword hilt first to her.

She hefted it taking a few experimental swings with the blade. "Interesting, I guess this explains your knowledge of sword fighting. Well, this has definitely been used quite often." She said running her gaze along the battered edge.

I chuckled "Yeah, that's what happens when it's used against another blade. They get damaged, but that just means that they've been used."

"That kind of damage looks like you use the edges against each other, wouldn't it be better to block with the flat of the blade?"

I shrugged "There are schools that teach you to do just that and while I am loath to just discount certain styles of fighting in my experience blocking with the flat doesn't protect you nearly as much as edge to edge. Then again, we generally don't try to just block, it's better to immediately have the threat of your own attack there for your opponent to either get hit by or worry about. Some people may know things I don't but we've never seen any reason to sacrifice your own safety for going easy on your sword."

"Well, I'll take your word for it. I know how to fight with a knife, fists, and baton, but I think that I'll leave the antique weaponry combat to you." A soft chime sounded from her omni-tool and she grimaced when she glanced down at it. "You'll have to show me your skills and teach me all about it later. Unfortunately, that later will likely be quite a bit later. I just got a message from Joker; apparently Admiral Hackett has an assignment for the Normandy."

I raised an eyebrow "Already? Doing what?"

She shrugged "I don't know. Apparently, he is waiting to brief me."

"Do you want to use my communicator? You can have Joker patch him through to my room."

Vanyali sighed "While that would be nice, the orders may be confidential. I'll take it on the Normandy."

"That's probably true. Classified information and all that." I said with a smile.

"I'll be sure to see you before we leave. It's probably going to take some time for preflight checks." She stepped in front of me.

I nodded silently as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. I held her close as she rested her head on my shoulder. "I'll miss you." I murmured.

"Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it." She was silent for a second "And when I get back I have something that I think we should discuss, now that CryNet is becoming an official branch of the citadel."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what might that be."

She pulled back slightly and looked at my visor, I mentally cursed my suit. "I'll tell you when I return, since we won't have to make the decision for at least another year."

"You just love teasing me don't you?" I asked with a smile.

"Absolutely." She said with a grin "It's so fun."

"Alright, well you let me know when it's time."

"I will."

I stared into her eyes and cursed softly. "I hate that I can't take my mask off, I feel so-"

I trailed off as Vanyali placed her hands on my shoulders. "Don't you worry about it Martin. Right now I just want you to get better. Maybe when I get back then your lungs will be healed to the point that you won't need it." She tilted her head slightly "And maybe if you take it easy they will heal a little bit faster."

I chuckled glancing down at the floor. "Maybe. probably..."

"You're not going to take it easy are you?" She asked me with a smile.

"No," I admitted shaking my head.

"Somehow I didn't think you would. Tell you what, I'm going to go talk to the Admiral, then you come and wait for me outside while it does its preflight checks."

I nodded. "I'll be waiting."


	2. Chapter 1

" _Hello and welcome. I'm Emily Wong. It is with great sadness that I am relaying this news to you. Commander Vanyali Shepard, the first human Spectre, died yesterday. She was killed while investigating reports of geth activity in the terminus systems. The council expressed their sorrow about the death, citing that it was the Commander's decision to save both their own lives and the lives of all those aboard the destiny ascension, while Councillor Teems reported that he had built a friendly rapport with the spectre prior to her unfortunate death. Commander Shepard is survived by her twin sister Maela Shepard, recently revealed to be in the employ of CryNet. Our best wishes go out to Shepard's sister and we offer our sincere condolences here at FCC."_

* * *

There were twelve guards outside the base in total. Four of them stood guard outside the entrance of the compound, along with an automated defense turret, while the remaining eight guards patrolled around the perimeter of the base in two-man groups. Two watchtowers overlooked the base from opposite corners. Each watchtower held two marksmen who were periodically scanning the surrounding area. I glanced up at the shuttle that was barely a speck in the sky before my sight magnified until I could see the white Kodiak shuttle clearly. There was a slight crackle accompanied by a single line of text displayed on my visor as I heard the shuttle contacting the base and requesting landing permission.

"Five, four, three, two, one, Mark. Ninety seconds." I counted keeping an eye on the shuttle in the distance.

With a powerful push, I kicked off from the ground and reached out, fingers outstretched as I grabbed hold of the top of the wall and quickly pulled myself up. On the thin wall I crouched, like an invisible gargoyle as I ran an eye over the base.

" _ **Tactical options available."**_

SECOND's message was fairly redundant as I already knew what those options were, my link with the suit having implanted them directly into my mind; or maybe I came up with them assisted by the suit? It didn't really matter as I dropped from the top of the wall and fell silently to the ground inside the compound. I took off at a quick pace making my way through the base, following the waypoints provided to me.

" _Eighty seconds."_

I decloaked in an empty corridor, allowing my suit to regain some of its charge as I briskly walked deeper into the base. A door opened in front of me with a hiss and two men wearing white and orange uniforms stepped out, their idle chatter dying on their lips as I grabbed both by their throats and effortlessly crushed their windpipes. The men died an instant later as I snapped their necks contemptuously. Throwing their bodies back into the dormitory that they had come from, I closed the door and continued on without a moment's hesitation.

" _Seventy seconds."_

There was no real need for Nova to provide me with a reminder of the time, my own sense of time was perfect considering my suit link. More likely it was for her own benefit, providing her something to focus on during her drop. I stepped through a door, cloaking now that my energy reserves were back to full, and I picked my way through the server room. A single technician looked up at the open door, but she paid it no mind as it slid shut behind me. Making my way to the center of the room, I pulled out an explosive charge and placed it underneath a rack of servers.

" _Sixty seconds."_

"Secondary charges set," I muttered, stopping just in front of a large security door and glanced back behind me as I waited.

" _Fifty seconds."_

There was a shudder as outside the shuttle flew overhead. During those few seconds I stepped through the door. A single guard who had been walking towards the control room paused looking suspiciously at the door as it closed behind me, seemingly with no one entering or leaving.

"What the hell?" He muttered as he continued walking looking back and forth. He didn't even make it five steps as I circled around him. Coming up behind his back, and I grabbed him by the jaw and back of his head. Before he could emit any kind of surprised noise I twisted sharply. His neck broke with a _crack_ and when I let him go his head had been twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees so that his face was now looking directly behind him. His wide eyes darted up to where I quickly vanished from sight again before his eyes closed in death.

" _Forty seconds."_

Leaving the guard lying where he was, I took off down the hallway back the way the guard had come from. Stepping through another door, I entered a bathroom. A woman who had been washing her hands, turned to see who had entered. The only thing she found however, was the tip of my knife as it pierced through her throat splashing crimson blood all over the sink and mirror. She slowly sank to the floor, her hands flying to the wound in a futile effort to try and stem the flow of blood. Turning, I pulled out my pistol and fired multiple subsonic rounds into a nearby stall, the suppressed shots piercing the thin plastic and finding their mark in another woman on the other side.

" _Thirty seconds."_

I walked over to the second to the last stall and pulled out two charges of explosives, placing one on the floor and the second on the ceiling. Stepping back, I armed the charges.

"Primary charges set," I muttered.

" _Understood, impact in twenty seconds."_

Five tense seconds passed, during which time I stepped back to the entrance, ignoring the dying body along the way, my boots leaving footprints in her blood.

" _Fifteen seconds! Decelerating."_

" _ **Maximum Armor."**_

I braced myself and all it took was a thought. A thought that was caught and interpreted by SECOND. The world vanished in a flash and a clap of thunderous sound as the explosive charges I had placed detonated all at once. The first charge I had placed destroyed the main defense computer taking the automated defenses of the base completely offline. The second pair of powerful explosives ripped gaping holes, each two meters across, in the roof and floor of the room I was in. My suit beeped a warning as the energy meter flashed red and my armor sputtered and gave out as it was struck with the overpressure and peppered with fragments that struck my armored suit.

I was moving before the last fragments had settled heading directly for the new hole in the floor and dropping down into the hallway below. Ahead of me was a heavy door sliding slowly to the ground. I broke into a sprint my muscles pumping as I tore down the hallway toward the blast door. Halfway down the hallway, my suit had recovered enough energy and I tripled in speed as SECOND's words echoed in my ears.

" _ **Maximum Power."**_

I dropped to the ground, my suit sending a shower of sparks along the metal ground as I slid underneath the blast door with plenty of time to spare. My pistol barked thrice, it's power setting now back to normal, firing supersonic bullets directly into the skulls of three technicians who were looking at me in a panic. Standing up I reached over my shoulder and pulled out my SCARAB, holstering my pistol as I did so.

I ran my gaze around the vault confirming that it was clear of hostiles. I looked around again, now searching for something. I ran over to a terminal that one of the technicians had been standing at and opened it hastily. A flashing red screen was all that greeted me initially, courtesy of the lockdown but that quickly gave way to a manifest as SECOND hacked into it. I stared at the monitor for a long moment until with a wordless shout of rage I grabbed the terminal, tore it out of its fastenings and threw it across the room where it smashed into the wall.

Glaring at the wreckage I spoke "Nova this is Wraith. The package was moved two days ago. We were too late."

There was a faint rumble in the distance when Nova responded. " _Understood. I've got a bunch of pissed guys here. I don't think they liked our entrance."_

"Have you reached the reactor yet?" I asked walking toward the blast door.

"Hold on. Need to deal with this YMIR first." Nova stopped talking for a moment and there was a sudden flurry of gunfire followed by a single explosion before she continued talking "There we go. Disabling power… Now."

With a low hum, the lights clicked off shrouding me in total darkness.

" _ **Nanovision enabled."**_

As the world became visible once more in shades of red, orange and grey, I reached down and dug my fingers into a ridge on the blast door and with a powerful heave pulled it up, high enough that I could slip underneath. The heavy door slammed shut after I passed it and I drew myself up looking down the dark hallway with only the slightest bit of light shining out from my entry point which also served as my exit as I jumped up, landing on the floor of the bathroom and then jumping up out of the hole in the ceiling to land on the roof of the building. I glanced around at a scene of carnage. The shuttle I had spotted coming in for a landing was a burning wreck, next to it a small impact crater. There was a firefight going on in one corner of the compound, and as I watched a rocket streaked out from behind a building and impacted into one of the towers, sending debris shooting out as the tower groaned and teetered under its weight. I watched as the tower lost its fight with gravity and fell, collapsing under its own weight and came crashing down on the compound wall tearing a ragged wound into the wall.

"Status?" I asked looking over towards the chaos.

" _I'm good. These goons really need to step up their game if they want to make things difficult for me."_

I glanced over my shoulder where I saw a group of Cerberus troopers forcing a door open and scrambling out "Understood. Our objective is now to neutralize the base. Wipe Cerberus from the planet."

The response from Nova was a few seconds in coming and was only one word " _Understood."_

I turned towards the group that was looking around the devastated base in shock and began walking towards them, vanishing from sight before I made it to the edge of the roof.

" _ **Cloak engaged."**_

* * *

"By the time we arrived the package had yet again been moved. It's getting too much, We've been hunting them for weeks. First Omega, then Ailingon, now here. They are constantly gone before we get there. Are we sure that we don't have a mole?"

" _Absolutely,"_ CARLA said. " _The only ones who knew of the raid you just did were myself and you two."_

"Then we've just been having the worst luck," I muttered, slamming my fist into my desk, leaving a dent.

"We'll catch up to them." Nova placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Damnit, Nova! While we keep chasing them they are doing who knows what to her body!" I sighed and turned away muttering "I can't believe Liara gave her to them. Cerberus, of all people. Fucking idiot."

"She made a bad call." Nova agreed "She shouldn't have helped them, but they promised her exactly what she wanted."

"Oh yeah because we really care what she wants. Not what Shepard would have wanted." I exclaimed sarcastically.

Nova raised an eyebrow "Well they were trying to convince Liara, so it would make sense to go off of what she wanted, but that's irrelevant. We need to keep going, we can't let up with our punches. We're making Cerberus hurt, we'll keep making them hurt."

I nodded slowly "Yeah, keep the pressure on. CARLA, do you have our next target?"

" _I do. Terra Firma party leader candidate Claude Menneau has been donating funds to a 'charity' that is officially providing funds for human war veterans. Unofficially, however, all those funds are being redirected to various Cerberus fronts. We've also had reports of Menneau meeting with Cerberus shell company directors on three separate occasions. It's clear that he has close ties to Cerberus. I suggest neutralizing Menneau. He has a political rally on Shanxi in three days. You should be able to intercept him en route."_

"You're talking about assassinating him," Nova said carefully.

"He's cerberus," I said simply.

"And if he's not? What if it is just coincidence that he's donating to that particular charity and that he met with those directors?" Nova asked.

"I don't like coincidences. They usually aren't. CARLA send us the details."

" _Sent."_

There were a few minutes of silence as I processed the information sent until finally I looked over at Nova. "He's flying in a private ship, we'll just hit him from stealth, take out his communications, and vaporize him."

Nova stared at me "He's not the only one on that ship! His crew, his staff- not all of them are working with Cerberus! There will be innocents killed as well!"

I slowly stood up looking at the other phantom "Casualties of war," I said simply heading past my unused living quarters and towards the cockpit.

"We're not at war, Wraith! You're talking about civilian target's, civilian casualties. That isn't just collateral damage here! They are people who are just working for the wrong person, most if not all of them are not extremist-"

"Oh don't give me that. There are extremist, they're working for and part of Terra Firma, literally an extremist party-"

"No. Cerberus is extremist, Cerberus make terrorist attacks to further their Firma, while I can agree they are xenophobic assholes, are not extremist. They are allowed to express their views, even if you disagree with them."

"Spin it however you want, he is our next target. We'd need to silence his staff and crew one way or another, do you think they really would stay silent about us killing Menneau? Like it or not, we need to remove him in order to remove a source of Cerberus funding."

"A _suspected_ source." Nova pressed as I sat down in the pilot's seat. "We still don't have confirmation that he-"

"We have more than just suspicions. Menneau is in league with Cerberus. He is being taken out and in order to ensure operational security, we are silencing everyone on that ship. It will be easy to pin it on his opponent within Terra Firma. The resulting investigation will ruin his reputation and Terra Firma will be down their only two leadership candidates. Kill two birds with one stone."

"Would you listen to yourself? You're wanting to murder a man and his entire staff and frame another innocent man for said murder! The Martin I remember would never have been this cold."

"Yeah, well, he died." I snapped back glaring at her causing her to recoil slightly. "He died three months ago on the citadel and again two months ago when he left _her_ to die in space."

"You didn't leave her to die, you know that there was nothing you could have done."

"Wrong!" I nearly shouted "If I had been on that ship like I should have been, I could have made sure that she got off of the ship safely! I could have saved her, I wouldn't have been helpless in space, I have thrusters, I had all the means to save her. I just wasn't there."

"You don't know that- there are so many-"

"Yes, I do. I've run the simulations thirty-two times with thirty-two different parameters. Thirty-one times she escapes with her life, one time I'm in a completely different area of the galaxy completely incapable of assisting in any way shape or form. So don't you tell me that I don't know that I could or could not have saved her, I assure you I do. That will be my burden to bear, but I'll be damned if I let Cerberus have her body."

"She wouldn't want-"

"I'm finished discussing this. Menneau is going to die, one way or another. And nothing you can say will stop it."

* * *

"Another base down. Send me the coordinates of the next."

The hologram of CARLA flickered slightly as she looked at me silently.

"Well? That data that I retrieved must have given you the location of another one."

" _I'd ask where Nova is, but unfortunately I already know."_

Ever since we took out Claude Menneau Nova had become more and more distant, unwilling to do what it took to hunt down Cerberus. We'd started arguing about the methods that I used to gather information and eliminate any resistance we encountered. She'd finally had enough when, after I'd blasted a hole into an asteroid base and spaced every single person inside, that she'd blown up and after another argument she'd stormed off demanding that I drop her off at the nearest base.

I shrugged carelessly in response to CARLA's statement. "She decided that she didn't have the stomach to do what it took. My last op proved that I don't need her."

CARLA slowly shook her head in disappointment. " _Just hearing you say that is wrong. There has been much discussion regarding some of your actions against Cerberus. Some of the directors want to pull you off of active duty."_

I snorted "Yeah like that's going to happen. I built the phantoms up from nothing. No one could pull me from doing my job."

" _Regardless it's something that's been brought up multiple times. Some of the things you're doing don't paint us in a very favorable light. You're lucky that Hargreave is on your side. He's managed to convince, or bully, a large portion of the directors that you're still worth keeping on active duty."_

"See? No problem. Now can you-"

" _However!"_ CARLA interrupted me, raising her voice slightly " _You are being recalled from hunting Cerberus."_

"What?!" I asked furiously "You can't just pull me from this hunt. I haven't finished yet!"

" _For the moment yes you are. We have no more solid leads and more importantly, Hargreave has demanded that you be part of the Noveria force."_

My lip curled in disgust, my anger coloring my voice "You have seven full phantom teams already a part of that invasion. A full legion of turian troops and a CELL brigade. You don't need me."

" _If it were just up to me I would agree. I'd rather you not be a part of that operation and possibly risk lives because of your current attitude. Unfortunately, my hands are tied in this matter. Hargreave has demanded that you be there and right now he has the leverage needed to ensure that happens. As such you are to head to the Annos Basin and rendezvous with the Turian Seventh Fleet. Finally, Hargreave has requested to speak to you. I'll patch him through to you now. If you have any questions he can answer them for you."_

Before I could respond CARLA's hologram vanished and there was a short pause before my terminal lit up with a video feed of a older man with white hair wearing an immaculate suit and sitting in an antique armchair with a map of earth behind him. I leaned back in my chair regarding the man with irritation. "Hargreave. I have two opinions of you right now and I don't think that me being grateful with you will last long."

" _Yes, I imagine that wouldn't be. Hunting Cerberus is a very noble undertaking and while many people, including your own friend and previous teammate Nova Terra, may find your methods and rationale to be questionable at best, I understand that sometimes things need to be done that others would balk at. Cerberus is a blight upon humanity and the galaxy, one that must be eradicated. However, by that very same rationale, I require you to be a part of the Noveria assault. I cannot waste you hunting Cerberus out of a desire for vengeance when we are about to undertake the largest offensive against the ceph in history."_

"Sure you could. I'm a single phantom. You already have forty other phantoms going to be there. Granted it is against the ceph but still, against just about anything else, forty phantoms would be seen of as overkill."

" _But both you and I know that against the Ceph that number may very well be far too small, Mr. Duncan. You are the only operative with actual experience with the Ceph. You've encountered them multiple times now and you have firsthand experience with the hive on Noveria. I need you there. With the news about the Reapers and from what we know about the Ceph… well, let's just say this galaxy is not the safest place for us. It's only a matter of time until the Ceph or the Reapers come and wipe us all out. The galaxy is on borrowed time. We have only one chance at survival and that is to wake up. I need you to be my eyes and ears out there Mr. Duncan."_

I lowered my eyes as I pondered Hargreaves words. "Alright, I don't understand this so far. You say that I've encountered the ceph and I'll grant you that I did enter the hive but Prophet also has experience with the ceph. Why didn't you tap him for this job."

Hargreave waved a hand in dismissal " _Prophet is still too idealistic. He is not yet ready for the cold hard truths of the galaxy. Besides, while he is wearing a Nanosuit of his own, his suit is impeded by those symbiosis safeguards that you insisted on adding. You no longer have those running which is essential here."_

I studied Hargreave for a few moments in silence. Much of Hargreave was a mystery. He was generally seen of as the black sheep of the CryNet directors, having for the longest time demanded that we not implement the safeguards in the nanosuit, stating that they impeded with the abilities of the suit. His hatred of the ceph was well known, having called for action to be taken against them on many occasions, yet the source of this hatred was unknown. He had started up a smaller company along with another man, Karl Rasch, that had ended up being bought by ATaS and absorbed into crynet in the very early stages of the study of ceph technology.

The two men had been key in the research of ceph technology. While Rash began researching other uses of the technology, Hargreave had quickly latched on to the Nanosuit program, being instrumental in the design of the first nanosuit and then perfecting the design with the Nanosuit 2. Ever since the release of the Nanosuit 2 however, Hargreave had faded into the background, working on various smaller projects, only rarely coming to the forefront of any CryNet Operations.

That, however, had changed after the Battle of the Citadel, when Hargreave had begun pushing for an offensive against the Ceph on Noveria. It had taken nearly nine months but he managed to gather enough support from both CryNet and the Council so that a task force was formed to eliminate the ceph threat on Noveria. It now appeared that Hargreave was committed to dealing with the threat of the Ceph, along with that of the reapers, and it seemed that he wanted to deal with the Ceph on Noveria quickly, before they could grow too strong. Then, after that, hopefully use whatever technology gained from them to deal with whatever else came knocking.

After a few long seconds, I finally nodded. "Alright. What do you need me to do?"

Hargreave smiled " _Be my eyes and ears. Bring back whatever samples you can, bring me whatever data you can. That is key. With it, we can prepare new defenses against the Ceph, Reapers and whatever other things that threaten our existence."_

"And when we're done on Noveria we'll need to eliminate Cerberus. They will only divide the galaxy in a time when we cannot afford to have more enemies."

" _Precisely. With the Ceph on Noveria dealt with we can focus our efforts on other targets one by one, starting with Cerberus."_

"Good. Now Noveria. Where do we start?"

* * *

 _A/N: I am back! I know that its been quite some time, I've been spending that time writing, getting stuck, writing getting stuck etc but its gotten to the point where I feel comfortable enough with starting to post chapters. I have a nice little backlog that I'd like to keep so I have a buffer allowing me to make chances if I decide to add something new down the line. Additionally huge thanks to_ _ShadowAngel32 for agreeing to be my beta. When I started working on this I figured now would be a good time to have someone look everything over. She's already been a huge help and the quality of my writing has definitely increased already in my opinion so big thanks to her. The Prologue has also been edited so I'd suggest taking a look at that to get refreshed._

 _Now then about the chapter and story, as you can tell Wraith has changed quite a bit, this is due to a few things, Shepard dying. Him dying and being brought back with the suit taking a much greater influence in his actions. He's going to be quite a bit more renegade here than he was in NE:TGC. Oh and Hargreave is really making his appearance now, he'll have more screen time than he did previously. I have the entire story planned out right now with multiple arcs, this first one is mainly focused on the return to Noveria but also everything leading up to Shepard waking._

 _Well I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and again I'm sorry for the long wait. My current plan is to update at least once a month, hopefully twice on a biweekly schedule but I won't promise anything._

 _~LEGION_


	3. Chapter 2

" _In a press conference earlier today, the Citadel council announced the formation of a military force dedicated to the recapture of Noveria. As many know, Noveria was lost to Charybdis forces just a few weeks before the battle of the citadel. Councillor Sparatus had this to say about the force:"_

" _It has been nine months since the Noveria incident, in which Noveria was lost to a Charybdis uprising, released by Binary Helix in one of their secret research facilities. Unfortunately any sort of response was delayed far longer than it should have when Saren and the geth attacked the Citadel. With the fleets badly damaged during the battle of the citadel and the resulting war against the geth, there has been no chance to confront the threat that the ceph pose to the galaxy. Until now. The Ceph are a hostile race completely unwilling to engage in any sort of diplomatic negotiations. However, now I am proud to announce that the council has authorized a task force to strike at noveria and eliminate the threat of the Ceph. The hierarchy's seventh fleet, along with the 26th Armiger Legion, accompanied by a CryNet enforcement brigade and multiple phantom and inquisitor teams have been dispatched to the horsehead nebula. We will show the Ceph the combined might of the Citadel."_

* * *

The Pax System of the Horsehead Nebula used to be relatively busy, as the Noveria Development Corporation had managed its own defensive fleet, alongside general travel to and from the ice world. However, over the last nine months, the system was almost completely devoid of travel. Occasionally some pirate or other independent ship would attempt to enter the system, attempting to sneak a peek at the now off-limits planet, however they were always immediately chased off by the blockade of ships that had been placed there in the aftermath of the Noveria incident. The incident was controversial when it happened, although it was soon overshadowed by the battle of the citadel when the geth laid siege to the citadel itself and the rogue spectre Saren was killed by Commander Shepard, the first human spectre, who had been assigned the task. In the aftermath, during which humanity was appointed to the citadel council, and only a month after when Commander Shepard had been killed by the geth, the entire Noveria situation was far from anyone's mind, aside from a few bureaucrats of the now-defunct NDC.

Today, however, Noveria was on the minds of many. The calm of space was broken as the Pax Relay spun up and ships began pouring out. The Turian Hierarchy's 7th fleet entered the system and began burning for the cold planet in the distance, a grim omen of things to come. It took nearly half an hour for the predatory birdlike ships to enter orbit above Noveria. Frigates darting between the larger light and heavy cruisers, which in turn were dwarfed by the three massive kilometer-long dreadnaughts. Taking up a position to the rear of the fleet was a single carrier, its hangar decks filled with one-man fighters and interceptors, waiting to be unleashed upon any target that dared to raise its head against the might of the 7th fleet.

Yet nothing rose from the surface in challenge. Nothing darted out from the other side of the planet to engage the fleet, and nothing moved from the distant asteroid belt. Space was calm and unbroken as the fleet reached their positions over the northern hemisphere of the planet, their bows aimed downward at the planet. For a few long minutes, the only things that moved were the frigates, patrolling around the larger ships, looking almost like bees tending to their hive. Yet that relative calm was violently broken as the many cruisers opened fire upon the planet. Heavy slugs propelled to a fraction of the speed of light ripped burning streaks through the atmosphere. Each impact sending geysers of snow and rock a hundred meters into the sky and triggering gigantic avalanches that rolled down into the valley.

Each impact chipped away at the mountains, removing layers of rock and stone to slowly reveal buried blue metal. Yet the effect the bombardment had was quickly muted as with a flash that subsided as quickly as it came, an opaque teal energy shield sprung up. The shield of energy slowly rose up until multiple large domes had formed around the various peaks, protecting the ceph hive. Once it had fully risen up to protect all it could it held strong, energy swirling and pulsating with each impact from the bombardment.

Despite the sudden lack of effect the ceph shield had caused, the bombardment did not cease or waiver, merely slowly spiraling southward covering large swaths of land in violent devastation. The shield that was protecting the various peaks and cliffs of the mountains no longer offering protection as the Turian bombardment traveled further south, leaving the Skadi Mountains behind to strike at other unprotected targets.

Seven frigates carefully picked their way through the firing lines of the turian bombardment seemingly merely patrolling around the fleet, yet these frigates did not have the same angular shapes of turian frigates, these were sleeker, with an elongated hull, delta wings that protruded out halfway down the main hull and a powerful engine attached to either wing. These CryNet Blackbird class frigates made their way through their predetermined routes and upon some unseen command, dozens of man-sized shapes exited the frigates and began hurtling planetside.

* * *

The winds picked up, violently buffeting the members of Raptor team back and forth as an almost constant rumble could be heard from the many kinetic impacts. There was something distinctly unsettling about seeing the flaming streaks, left behind by a mass accelerator round fired from orbit, appearing just a few hundred meters away, like bolts of orange lightning, each sinking into the snowy fog that had been thrown up by the countless bombardment strikes. Nomad glanced sharply to the side as Psycho fell past him, arms tucked by his side, legs together. Further away he could see the remainder of the phantoms falling in a relatively tight formation, only about two hundred meters wide around him. Raptor was on the northwestern side of the formation. Highlighted on his HUD he could see Eagle and Hawk on either side of Raptor while Dragon was more to the center of the formation. Barely visible through the rushing winds and snow he could see Raven and Serpent while Raider was completely hidden from his sight.

The amount of assets being deployed was quite staggering, the entire Turian 7th fleet, An entire Turian infantry Legion, over a company's worth of Inquisitors and a full CELL brigade not even counting all seven Phantom teams currently in active service. A single phantom team was already capable of taking on a lot. Seven was overkill in most situations, however in this circumstance Nomad privately found himself wishing that there were twice the amount of phantoms at least. It made sense to drop the phantoms first, hidden amongst the bombardment to get as much intel as possible for the shock troops who would come next, but Nomad still wished that there would be more than thirty-five pairs of boots on the ground. Granted there didn't exist thirty-four other people who he'd rather be on the ground with him Still, when comparing thirty-five to the untold numbers of ceph that likely awaited them on the surface, he wished there were at least double the amount of phantoms to go down with them all.

Forty seconds until impact with the ground, the world vanished into a flurry of white snow so thick that Nomad could hardly see his hands at his side so thick was the snow kicked up by the orbital bombardment."Thirty seconds." There was the smallest hint of a tremor in Prophet's voice as he reported the time until touchdown then again Prophet was unflappable in the face of just about anything so that tremor was likely due more to the turbulent winds than any kind of fear. However, Nomad couldn't help but notice the absence of the usual joking that Psycho and Jester would partake in during drops.

"Activate fields!" The call from Prophet was fairly redundant as, by the time he had finished calling out, Nomad and the wireframes of the other phantoms he could see had already spread their arms and legs, maximizing drag and flipping around in the last few seconds of almost weightless fall. Nomad landed hard on uneven rock, staggering slightly as he struggled to keep his balance but managing to stay on his feet. The constant bombardment from the fleet in orbit shook the ground and made standing a challenge that soon faded into the background as Nomad adapted to the rumbling ground.

" _ **Nanovision enabled."**_

The blinding white that encompassed Nomad's vision gave way to the much more useful grey tones of his Nanovision, allowing him to see up to two hundred meters through the heavy snow. Looking around he spotted a couple other phantoms that hadn't been so lucky as to manage to stay on their feet, quickly getting up and drawing their weapons from their harnesses.

There were a few silent exchanges of nods between phantoms as the seven teams split up and began making their separate ways to their objectives, the dark figures one by one fading into the swirling fog and snow, leaving Nomad alone with the rest of his team. The initial terse exchanges between the team members became more and more relaxed over the next two hours and soon enough Psycho and Jester were commenting on the constant earthquakes that resulted from the bombardment.

* * *

"Hold up there son. I'm getting some readings from your suit."

"I know. Ceph scout up ahead. Looks like it's on its own." I confirmed Hargreave's words before asking a question "Still no sign of the spore?"

"No, I expect that you are still too far from the main hive for us to find any signs of its presence. Assuming, of course, they are deploying it."

"Not that it would matter too much as we're not deploying many humans groundside." I glanced over my shoulder, quickly interrupting my watch of the distant dark figure in the distance. "Should I engage? Since it's on it's own I can maybe get a headstart on intel."

"It would likely alert the ceph that we have troops on the ground. If this scout is on its own out here, it will be unlikely that it will manage to find anyone if we leave it be. However if it isn't, then it's only a matter of time before we are discovered and possibly ambushed. Best we engage on our terms."

I nodded raising my Zeus rifle to sight in on the dark form of the scout. "Alright then." My finger curled around the trigger and with a gentle movement, pulled the trigger. While in general CryNet developed weapons that were modular and very versatile, more recent weapons had begun to be developed in order to directly combat ceph threats. This had given rise multiple new types of weaponry, including the MIKE and the Zeus rifle.

Originally designed as an anti-material rifle under the name of the CTA-2183 Gauss, the Zeus underwent multiple changes to make it better suited to its new anti-ceph role. Utilizing ammunition similar to the now-defunct penetrator rounds, the Zeus fired actual large caliber bullets, designed specifically to penetrate the armor on ceph scouts. If firing the M-98 Widow at infantry was considered overkill, firing the Zeus at anything less than a tank was considered a waste. Yet that massive amount of firepower was considered necessary as anything less was unable to reliably penetrate the extremely strong armor that the ceph liked to use.

My Zeus bucked against my shoulder, the recoil so strong that much like a Widow, one needed to use power armor, biotics or be a krogan to be able to fire it without getting your arm blown off. However the power was justified as with a single deafening crack the round exploded from the end of the weapon. A trail of white vapor, which quickly froze in the icy temperatures, appeared connecting the tip of my rifle to the now falling ceph scout.

My lips twitched upwards in a small satisfied grin as I ran towards the downed scout. "Field test of the Zeus is looking good so far." I activated my Omni-tool as I approached the ceph unit and knelt as I quickly began cutting away at the exoskeleton. Unfortunately, I didn't get far as mere moments after I arrived the scout let out a high-pitched hum. Without hesitation I stopped my cutting and moved away, putting distance between myself and the scout just in time as with a flash of light and a loud hiss, the ceph vaporized itself with a blast of energy.

Hargreave sighed in my earpiece "Well it was worth a shot. I managed to get some data from your suit sensors before it self-destructed which will have to do."

"Any difference from our previous data?"

"None."

"Strange to see that these are still the same kind of ceph as were on Xanadu but the Altahe ceph hive was different. Something to do with the temperature maybe?" I asked as I began making my way away from where the scout had vaporized.

Before Hargreave could respond another voice cut in over the second communications net I was patched into " _Oversight, this is Raptor lead priority message."_

The voice of Commander Lockhart answered swiftly "Send it Prophet."

" _We've got Ceph scouts swarming our position. We're still concealed but we may be compromised. Still five clicks from objective Crater, requesting standby on orbital assets in case of confirmed compromisation. Over."_

"That was a very fast response from the ceph," Hargreave commented.

I nodded in agreement "There must be a hive entrance nearby. Do you want me to investigate?"

There was a moment of silence before Hargreave answered. "Go. Do what you can to eliminate the threat and get more data. I'll continue monitoring your suit functions."

* * *

 _ **Raptor team, a few minutes prior**_

* * *

Raptor had been trekking across the snowy, rocky terrain for hours without interruption, so when Nomad spotted a series of dark shapes moving in the distance, he immediately slowed and dropped to one knee.

"Soft Contact, three hundred meters bearing oh-three-one. Fifty meters in the air, Scout." He reported, his visor tracking the flier.

"Everyone, cloak and hold."

" _ **Cloak engaged."**_

"You want me to take it out, boss?" Psycho asked quietly as he harnessed his SCAR and pulled out the heavy gauss from his back.

Prophet shook his head "Not yet. I want to bypass it if at all possible."

"Prophet." Aztecs voice cut in "How did it get here? How did it survive the bombardment."

"Lucky maybe?" Jester suggested.

"Then why is it heading south? There are no ceph hives south of us." Nomad narrowed his eyes.

"You think it's looking for us, Nomad?" Prophet asked.

"Maybe. But it could just be on patrol." Nomad answered as the Scout flew past almost directly overhead.

"That was a little too close boss." Psycho murmured as the Scout continued south, soon vanishing into the swirling snow.

"Prophet another one!" Aztec hissed "Three-fifty-five. Heading south."

"Bearing Zero-ten another."

"Bearing Thirty-five!"

"Zero-Zero-five."

Nomad gripped his SCAR tightly, eyes darting worriedly to his energy meter as the contact reports continued flooding in as more and more dark shaped ceph flew past. He glanced over at Prophet who had begun reporting the situation over his newly installed Quantum Entanglement Communicator to the fleet above.

"Oversight, this is Raptor lead priority message." It didn't take long for Prophet to get a response.

"Send it Prophet."

"We've got Ceph scouts swarming our position. We're still concealed but we may be compromised. Still five clicks from objective Crater, requesting standby on orbital assets in case of confirmed compromisation. Over."

"Copy that Prophet. Request granted, redirecting the Karnack to your net for fire support. Attempt to remain concealed however if concealment is no longer an option you are all clear to engage ceph forces."

"Copy that Oversight, much appreciated. Prophet out." Prophet's wireframe turned to look at Nomad. "If new Scouts keep showing up in thirty seconds we're going loud."

Nomad nodded "Copy Boss."

"Oversight this is Eagle, reporting increased ceph activity in our zone, same as Raptor."

"Dragon reporting the same."

"This is Oversight to all Phantom teams. Be advised Ceph activity is spiking. You may have stumbled across a ceph hive or outpost near your positions. They appear to have managed to evade our orbital bombardments. All phantom teams you are clear cease covert operations and begin engaging any ceph forces if the situation demands it. Rerouting further light cruisers to this net to provide orbital support. Push forward to Objective Crater. Confirm your understanding of these orders."

Prophet spoke the first words that would kick off the first infantry engagement of the Battle for Noveria. "Raptor team copies. Engaging ceph forces now."

There was no hesitation at his words. No fumbling for safeties, no quick prayers, no words as each member of Raptor team picked a separate target and as one opened up. It was difficult to say exactly who fired the first shot as five separate phantoms opened up. Nomad triggered his underslung grenade launcher which let out a loud _thunk_ as it spat out a single incendiary grenade. It sailed out and struck a scout detonating a moment later in a blast of fire and plasma that melted through the armor of the scout and caused it to spasm as it started spiraling out of the sky, leaving a trail of black smoke behind it, along with four other scouts that had been shot down by the remainder of raptor.

Nomad quickly adjusted his sights and opened fire on a second scout with his rifle, his rounds sparking off of the dark armor as it twisted in midair to face Nomad and a small stream of silver shards of ice erupted from the scout impacting onto Nomad's suit just as SECOND sounded in the phantom's ears.

" _ **Maximum Armor."**_

The impacts were muted, like someone was patting him on the chest over and over as his suit energy dropped dangerously low as he hadn't had a chance to recharge since being cloaked. There was a loud crack, accompanied by a streak of vapor and whirling snow as Psycho fired his new anti-material rifle at the scout, the heavy round tearing a glowing hole straight through the scout and finding its mark inside the inner workings.

"Raptor team lead to the Karnak requesting danger close fire support."

Nomad ducked as Prophet charged past him, rifle blazing as he focused his fire on a ceph scout that had turned to begin circling the team, trying to flank them.

"Light Cruiser Karnak reporting. Send fire mission." The flanging voice of the turian captain was calm and collected yet reported almost immediately.

"Requesting two rounds, fire for effect. Targeting data transmitting now. Be advised, friendly forces danger close, two hundred meters southwest." Nomad turned and sprinted to the side combining his fire with Prophets to bring the scout down hard.

"Targeting data received and confirmed danger close call, stand by for two rounds at thirty percent power." Nomad turned his attention to a new Scout that sped at a high speed towards the team and as it approached them it spun in the air, rotating on its axis and releasing a series of smaller metallic objects that fell to the ground and unfurled to reveal the forms of six smaller ceph troopers. Their four arms curling out from behind their horse-head shaped bodies. Nomad shifted his attention towards this group of troopers and fired his grenade launcher again, sending another incendiary grenade downrange to explode in their midst, destroying two troopers and tearing a limb off of a third one.

"Karnak, target acquisition complete. Firing." There was a pause of two seconds during which Jester managed to destroy the damaged trooper while Nomad and Aztec took down a fourth. "Rounds complete."

The words had hardly registered when the world shuddered and exploded as two hundred meters away a geyser of stone and rock erupted, the stone shards shredding two scouts that were coming in towards the group. Nomad threw himself to the ground to avoid any further shrapnel as two seconds later an identical geyser burst forth fifty meters from the first, shredding an additional three scouts.

From his position on the ground, Nomad fired his SCAR at the last, the fifth having run afoul of Psycho's marksman skills. As the trooper fell Nomad scrambled to his feet as Prophet started shouting at them "GO! GO! GO! Push up! Move!" There was a mad scramble as the five men jumped up and began running. Their rifles continuing to fire at any ceph in sight as rocks continued raining down upon them, the rocks, capable of bringing down an unarmored man yet little more than an annoyance to the phantoms.

"Aztec! On your right!" Nomad called out as he saw a ceph trooper rise from underneath a pile of rubble only to be met by a hail of bullets as Aztec seamlessly aimed and fired at the robotic ceph.

"They just keep coming!" Jester commented firing nonstop at a group of troopers that were coming out of the fog, pausing only to eject a thermal clip and pop in a new one.

"Nomad, Psycho flank left get behind the bastards. Aztec, Jester and I will keep them occupied." Prophet ordered, taking down another trooper with a long burst from his SCAR.

"Understood. Psycho on me!" Nomad called, SECOND speaking into his ear as he cloaked and sprinted to the side as a hail of ice shards cut through the location that Nomad had just left. Finding cover in one of the craters left by the orbital bombardment, Nomad uncloaked and glanced over at Psycho who appeared beside him a moment later. Pausing just long enough for his suit energy to completely fill Nomad glanced at his fellow phantom beside him "You ready?"

Psycho nodded in anticipation "Hell yeah. Let's get up and at those fuckers."

"Alright, I'll open up with a grenade, take out any stragglers when I do."

"You got it, Nomad."

With one final nod Nomad crouched low, his suit glowing red as SECOND responded to his mental command with two words.

" _ **Maximum Power."**_

Nomad pushed off from the ground with all the strength the nanosuit could give him, propelling him over six meters into the air. His rifle tracked a group of troopers highlighted on his visor and the underslung launcher barked, sending a grenade sailing directly into their midst before they could even begin to react. The round exploded in a wave of fire and plasma, melting through pieces of armor and reducing a couple of the troopers to little more than molten slag. Those that were close to the detonation but managed to survive were only marginally better off, their weakened armor leaving them prey to the accurate fire from Aztec, Jester and Prophet. As Nomad fell back to the ground, Psycho downed another trooper that hadn't been caught in the fireblast and was shifting his fire to a second. Caught under fire from two sides the remainder of the ceph quickly fell, self-destructing as they fell to the ground.

Nomad looked over at Prophet after a quick glance at his HUD that revealed no new ceph targets nearby. "We're clear. Let's move before any more ceph show up. Serpent and Firehawk are almost at Crater and they've spotted ceph forces in the area. We need to hurry up if we want to make it in time."

"Well we don't want them to have all the fun now do we?" Psycho asked drawing a hearty agreement from Jester and Aztec as Raptor team turned and vanished into the blizzard with a shimmer of energy.

* * *

"Admiral! Energy spike from the surface near the Skadi Mountains."

Admiral Primsius Darnius glanced sharply at his sensor officer before turning towards the holographic display in front of him. "Onscreen. Get me details."

"Multiple heat and radiation plumes. I'm reading six total. Unable to get visual or LADAR confirmation, the blizzard has the area shrouded. Radar indicates no major changes in the atmosphere."

Admiral Darnius folded his hands together in front of him as he pondered the news. "What's the status on the ground teams? How long until the LZ is cleared?"

"Barring any more contact that slows them down? Fifteen minutes until the first teams arrive." An ensign answered from his right.

Darnius nodded slowly. "Pull all ships currently not in support to the phantoms back. Have the Relentless prepare its fighters for launch. Maintain constant radar sweeps of the mountains and if anything changes let me know."

"Yes, sir!"

"Send word to General Velirian that deployment may be delayed, we have unknown energy signatures detected on the surface."

"Sir! Heat signatures on the move, we now have radar contact in sector D3! Eight contacts now."

"Bring us into a firing position. Order the Myrmidon and Peerless to prepare for contact. Get the cruisers in formation and launch all fighters. Get me firing solutions now!"

"Targets are breaking through the cloud cover, LADAR imaging active! Two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers. Additionally two large packs of fighter craft enroute. Appear similar to ceph scouts!"

"Target designated."

"Gunnery reports target acquired."

"Fire!"

The floor of the Indomitable shuddered as a heavy slug was propelled to a fraction of the speed of light. It traveled the thousands of kilometers between the dreadnought and its target in ten seconds. Two seconds later the Indomitable was joined by the other two dreadnoughts of the fleet as it fired its second shot. The first ferrous slug fired by the Indomitable, containing enough power to shear through the shields and armor of just about any cruiser in the galaxy merely bounced off of the glowing red shields of the ceph ship.

Two seconds later the dreadnought's volley made contact with their targets which had been making no attempts to avoid the incoming fire, instead, the ceph fleet increased their speeds as they closed the distance between the two fleets. The second volley of the Indomitable once again merely bounced off of the ceph's powerful shielding. It took another two volleys before the Myrmidon and Peerless turned from their individual contacts that hadn't had any better luck than their flagship to concentrate their fire on the cruiser that the Indomitable was still attacking.

The combined volley of the three dreadnoughts managed to finally break through the crimson shielding of the ceph cruiser allowing the next volley to tear gaping holes through the ship which teetered listlessly for a brief moment before a glowing orb of electric blue energy ripped the ship in two as the core went critical.

As the dreadnoughts ponderously turned to target the second heavy cruiser, the ceph entered the maximum effective range of the turian's own heavy cruisers and a volley was fired from the twelve smaller ships. The volley was once again focused on the remaining larger vessel and a few seconds later the dreadnoughts joined their smaller heavy cruisers in sending a staggering amount of firepower at the ceph ship. Yet once again the cruiser's powerful shields merely shrugged off the first volley of fire as it continued barreling towards the turian fleet, not yet opening fire with their own weapons. The 7th fleet's second volley, bringing what was normally considered overkill to fire at a single target managed to break through the ceph's shielding and gut the craft, causing it to also explode in a brilliant blue orb of light.

As the 7th fleet's light cruisers started acquiring their own targets, the four remaining ceph ships finally entered weapons range. Bright white streams of plasma lanced out from the smaller ships at the turian cruisers currently screening the three dreadnoughts. The crews of the three light cruisers Vespira, Victory and Paladin died before they realized what was happening as the beams of energy ripped through their kinetic barriers and tore gaping holes through the armor, penetrating through and striking their mass effect cores. The resulting explosions ripped the cruisers to pieces scattering the burning pieces caught by Noveria's gravity well. However, the returning volley from the seventh fleet tore through two of the ceph ships before they could fire again, the crimson shields of the lighter cruisers much weaker than those of their heavier brethren. The two remaining ceph ships however fired again, a beam of energy raking across the Hermia's engines disabling them while the second ship struck the heavy cruiser Avenger, scoring the heavier armor but not managing to pierce through as the return volley destroyed the two ceph ships as interceptors from the carrier Relentless darted past the larger ships. Missiles and mass accelerator fire were answered by cerulean beams as the turian interceptors engaged the ceph fighters.

As turian light cruisers powered forward, GUARDIAN laser defenses lancing out to assist their interceptors, far below on the planet's surface, Seven phantom teams regrouped and sent a single message up towards the fleet far above them. This message contained six words. " _Objective Crater secured. Go for Meteorfall."_

* * *

 _A/N: Well here's chapter 2 which includes my first space battle scene. I really didn't like it when I was writing it and I still don't think it's very good, but I can already tell that Space battles will not really be my thing. Something for me to improve in the future. I feel like I need to improve my battle and fighting scenes in general._

 _Anyway huge thanks to my beta Shadowangel32 for her continued work._

 _If you have any feedback please don't hesitate to leave a review or PM me directly._


	4. Chapter 3

" _Meteorfall? Fancy name for what was essentially a large-scale orbital drop. The first time that Inquisitors burned in en masse, and really one of the first times that inquisitors in general were used as shock troops in an actual large-scale engagement. We'd done training on it of course, but no matter how realistic the simulator is, it is still just a simulator. In total, we numbered something close to two-and-a-half thousand inquisitors with another five thousand turian shock troops. Turian cabals, havocs and the like. An impressive orbital drop to be sure, but the thing to remember is that an orbital drop, just like any attempt to establish a beachhead, results in casualties. I lost a bunch of friends in Meteorfall. None of my team luckily, but I know that Swordfish and Enigma got wiped out by scouts on the way down and only a single man from Avalanche made it to the ground. In total, I think about percent of the dropping troops died before getting their feet on the ground. At least it looked impressive for the politicians."_

 _Excerpt from "Nobody expects the Inquisition"_

 _Autobiography of Ryan "Atlas" Mitchell_

 _Team leader of Titan, 1st Inquisitor team._

* * *

" _This is General Velrian, Meteorfall is a go. Drop in thirty seconds."_

Ryan Mitchell exchanged quick glances with the remainder of his team, giving them a quick and confident nod just before his seat tipped backwards into the wall, rotating until it left him suspended upside down looking down at the hatch just half an arm's length away. He hung there for a few seconds idly contemplating his return to Noveria. His last visit had resulted in the loss of Noveria to the geth, along with the infection of his entire team with a ceph bioweapon. He was fortunate that Wraith had been on planet as well as it was unlikely that they would have been saved from its effects otherwise. The nanites, adapted to combat the spore remained in his veins, prevented the spore from ravaging his body, a mere halting of progress that would last until the scientists could find a more permanent solution.

"You boys ready?" he asked his team.

" _Absolutely. Ready to get a bit of payback for the last time we were here."_ Ares answered enthusiastically.

Atlas nodded once as the timer displayed on his hud approached zero. "Alright then. I'll see you boys and girls on the ground."

A few calls of agreement made their way over his comms just before the hatch in front of him opened revealing the distant surface of Noveria far below him. A second passed as he watched the swirling white clouds beneath him until with a loud thud he shot out of the launch tube, propelled by a powerful jet blast to the surface far below.

Atlas' shields immediately flared up as he plunged headfirst towards the planet, the thin air around him starting to glow and heat up as he tore through the atmosphere, quickly reaching terminal velocity..

Later the drop would be likened to that of a meteor shower, as thousands of identical trails of flame shot out of hundreds of dropships similar to the one Atlas had dropped out of. It would take several minutes for the dropping troops to land on noveria itself, during which the fiery trails would give way to simple vapor trails which would also evaporate and vanish as the troops would approach the ground.

However, halfway to the surface, the radio channels would erupt with panicked shouting and cries as dozens of ceph scouts erupted from the cloud layer below. The falling inquisitors and turian special forces had no defense against the ceph who began preying upon the defenseless soldiers. The once impressive formation of falling troops turned into a horror scene of chaos as the formation broke, some of the dropping troops panicking and slowing their descent in a hopeless attempt to defend themselves, only to be ripped apart as their slower fall made them easier targets for the merciless ceph. The bodies of those that were killed or badly injured by the ceph also slowed as they were no longer capable of maintaining the tension required to keep their bodies in their falling positions.

Those that were lucky enough to avoid ceph aggression and stayed collected enough, continued falling to the ground as fast as possible. The tight cluster of drop troops spreading out over a far larger area in an attempt to reduce further casualties.

"Titan! Follow me!" Atlas shouted, adjusting his fall just in time to avoid a ceph scout, its arms outstretched, grasping for the inquisitor team leader. "Don't slow down for anything! Four seconds before impact rotate out for landing. Shunt all power into your mass effect cores and muscle weave."

"Will that be enough?" Athena called out, her scottish accent more pronounced than usual.

"It won't be the softest of landings but we'll be combat ready the fastest."

"That scout is coming around for another pass!" Ares warned.

"Understood. Ten seconds to landfall. Keep your mind on the landing. We'll make it to the ground before it reaches us."

As his altimeter ticked closer and closer to zero his HUD displayed new contacts on the ground below him. Mitchell spared himself a split seconds time to grimace as he extended his arms and flipped upright just moments before hitting the ground.

* * *

"Found a terminal. Establishing a connection." I reported, hacking into the blue holographic terminal in front of me.

" _I'm in. Excellent work Mr. Duncan. I suggest you prepare yourself, the ceph are responding to your presence. I suggest you begin heading back to the surface."_

"You're already done?" I asked surprised.

" _No. But so long as you remain within the vicinity of the hive I will be able to maintain the connection. I will continue to gather as much data from the terminal as I can in the meantime."_

"Sounds good to me." I said twisting around and using my hydro thrusters to propel me along within the hive tunnels."

I twitched to the side, avoiding the ceph that burst out of a hatch next to me. With a sharp twist I brought my shotgun up and shredding the unarmored ceph with a single blast. I put on a burst of speed, as I followed the glowing orange power lines until I spotted what appeared to be a pair of tunnel mouths. One of which had beads of energy pouring out of it, that slowly dissipated as they left the tunnel, while the other had the same energy beads being generated within the tunnel to streak down the tunnel.

"Hold on, these are the same kind of tunnels that I found in the main litho ship in Peak 15. I think the ceph use them as a method of quick transportation. At least that's what I used them for. These may lead directly to the ceph lithoship."

" _An excellent point. However, if the ceph shut them down while you are either inside the lithoship or within the tunnels themselves then you would be trapped with possibly no way out. As it is we have no way of controlling them or knowing where they go. But that gives me an idea. If we can gain control of their systems, we may be able to use the tunnels for our own purposes."_

I nodded slowly "It would make logistics much easier."

" _Among other things. I suggest that you get back to the surface. The invasion will be starting shortly."_

"On my way. How are the other teams doing?"

" _Only a few injuries so far, none serious."_

"I told you the upgrades were worth it."

" _I never said that they wouldn't be."_

"I'm coming up to the surface and I can't help but notice that I've not encountered that many ceph since the hack begun."

" _I've noticed that too and it troubles me."_

"Check the data you're receiving, make sure it's not junk or a virus."

" _Already done. It's neither, or at least it's not junk to us."_

I slowed as I came to a window overlooking what appeared to be a large bay of some kind and as I approached I quickly spotted where all the ceph were. "Hargreave, they're all getting into scouts. But then they're just just standing there, almost like they're waiting for something." I trailed off, my eyes widening as I realized just what the ceph were waiting for. I cursed softly backing up and bringing my zeus up to bear, aiming it at one of the scouts on the other side of the window. "Let's hope this works," I muttered and pulled the trigger.

My rifle bucked as the heavy round punched through the transparent material the ceph used for their windows and hit the scout I had been aiming at which jerked once and went still. I swiveled my aim towards another scout, quickly pulling out the overheated thermal clip, stowing it, and slotting a fresh one into the rifle and fired as the remainder of the ceph in the bay unloaded upon me with a hail of ice shards, or they tried as instead all of their shots merely impacted with the window in front of me, ripples of bluish energy billowing out from each impact, revealing that the window appeared to be shielded in some way. Their weaker weapons were unable to penetrate while my high powered rounds pierced through with little difficulty. It didn't take the ceph long to realize the advantage I held as after I killed the third scout a group of eight scouts swarmed the window I was standing behind, their powerful mechanical arms smashing repeatedly into the window as I killed a fourth with another shot.

As my rifle beeped overheated and empty I took in the long cracks that were forming in the window between me and the ceph with some concern. Quickly replacing the thermal clip with a fresh one I turned and ran, placing the hot clip into my harness to cool as I put as much distance between me and the ceph as possible.

" _The drop has already commenced, estimated four minutes until the first troops make landfall."_

"And the ceph know," I stated as the sound of the window shattering could be heard behind me. "How?"

" _Not important right now. You need to get out of there, and the drop troops need to be able to secure the LZ's so the grunts can land."_

"Get me an objective. The vanguard will need all the help they can get."

" _Get to the surface. You're on the outskirts of the drop zone. However, if the ceph engage them, then there will be many that will miss their intended landing sites. Once on the ground, the ceph will swarm them; they may need assistance with the rendezvous."_

A series of dull impacts on my back forced me to quickly duck around a corner and armor up. "Get to the surface, assist drop troops," I repeated giving a short nod as I stepped out and fired my zeus killing the scout I had aimed at and forcing the one behind it have to push it's way past the wreckage, allowing me time to continue moving down the hallway allowing the rifle's thermal clip to cool down.

" _First landing in about three minutes, sensors have already detected ceph scouts moving to intercept."_

"I'll be out of here in two minutes maximum," I said cloaking and diving towards the wall of the tunnel turning and pulling myself back the way I came, using the uneven walls of the ceph architecture as my means of propulsion. It was far slower than my hydrothrusters, especially since I was being extremely careful, however, it made me virtually undetectable, allowing me to crawl past the group of scouts that were hot on my heels, chasing me down a corridor that I was no longer travelling down.

As the last scout passed me I increased my speed, starting to leap off the walls and began making my way back the way I'd come periodically hiding myself to uncloak and recharge my energy reserves. Soon enough I found the now broken window that I'd been shooting through, giving me access to the now empty and open to the exterior of Noveria bay. As I began climbing my way up towards the exterior I felt gravity slowly begin to reassert itself, pulling me down towards what had previously been my ceiling. Releasing my grasp on the wall I allowed myself to fall gracefully down to the floor and started taking long leaps through the ever-increasing gravity until it was strong enough for me to run out into the blizzard.

Looking up I mentally flicked a filter on my HUD allowing me to see hundreds of green icons above me. My suit was already extrapolating current and ever-changing landing site estimates for many of the drop troopers above me, displaying all that information on my HUD.

" _ **Threat Detected."**_

I fell into a crouch, turning around to face a ceph trooper that had just burst out of the snow to my right. A single shot from my Zeus tore a gaping hole directly in the center of its body sending it sparking to the ground where it self-destructed a few seconds later.

Yet as more troopers started unburrowing from the ground, I hastily switched the heavy rifle for my SCAR and started unloading on the nearest one as I slowly started walking backwards keeping a good distance between myself and the troopers. I managed to fell three troopers before I was forced behind cover as my energy reserves reached critical. As my energy levels recharged I placed my SCAR on my back, pulled out my Zeus again and aimed up at the red icon displayed on my HUD. I waited for a few seconds as the target got closer until finally It was deemed close enough. My finger gently pulled the trigger sending a hypervelocity round screaming upwards, the vapor trail almost invisible in the swirling white of the blizzard. I grinned as the red icon turned grey as I pulled out my SCAR once more and with one final glance upwards I stepped out from around the rock.

" _ **Maximum Armor."**_

I felt the muted thuds, like someone had thrown a ball at me, as my suit absorbed the impacts of the few shots that the troopers managed to get off on me before they were crushed as five one-ton GHOST powered assault armors smashed down on top of them with the force of small cannons. I smoothly traversed my aim over and with two sustained bursts I brought down the two Troopers that hadn't been struck by the meteors from space.

I stepped out towards the five Inquisitors who had already risen to their full height and had their weapons at the ready. "Nice of you to drop by Titan," I said with a smirk, switching to their radio frequency.

"Thanks for the assist up there." Atlas responded "That was a whole clusterfuck. I think we missed the LZ."

I glanced at the map displayed on my HUD. "You're not the only ones. The ceph knew the drop was incoming. They were waiting. Come on, we need to regroup with the other units. There's a Havoc squad under attack not far from here."

"Sounds good. Let's show these ceph that Titan isn't to be messed with!"

* * *

"Firehawk this is Wraith. We're in position to assault the objective from the southwest. I've got three inquisitor teams, six havoc squads and a team of Cabal's with me. Also, have about four half strength inquisitors and havocs."

After learning that the ceph may have cracked our long-range communications, it had been decided that the only communication that as much communication as possible would be done by the phantoms. Our QEC's meant that we could communicate freely without fear of interception or jamming. The QEC from each phantom team lead connected directly to the prism, from which the transmission could be rerouted either to another Phantom via their QEC, or it could be transmitted to the fleet in orbit via standard communications protocols.

" _Firehawk copies. We've only got two half-strength inquisitor teams and four havoc squads at varying strengths. We're in position to the east and ready for the assault."_ Predator, Firehawk's team lead reported.

" _Raptor is enroute from the north with another six inquisitor teams and twelve havoc squads. All of varying strengths. ETA about five minutes."_

"Copy that Raptor. Firehawk and I will initiate the assault now, get the ceph face us, that will let you smash in and strike them where they are unprepared."

" _Understood. Firehawk is ready."_

"Karnak this is Wraith requesting fire mission."

" _Karnak receives you, operative. Send coordinates."_

A mental command sent a data packet to the turian cruiser in orbit. "Targeting data sent. Requesting four rounds, fire for effect."

" _Data received, standby for fire mission."_

I turned back and over the new radio net that I was using to communicate with the various leaders of the various units we had managed to rescue. The plan had been done in person, without radios to minimize chances of interception, all that it required was a single command to begin the assault. Once the assault was given, communication could be carried out over our radios again, as the dangers that the ceph might be listening were outweighed by the need for solid communication between the units. "Firehawk is in position. Prepare for assault."

" _Operative Wraith, this is the Karnak, fire mission is set and ready to deliver."_

"You may fire when ready Karnak."

" _Splash."_

Hardly had the words sounded over the radio then, with a thunderous roar, the ground shuddered beneath my feet as over the span of eight seconds four cruiser rounds slammed into the earth just a few hundred meters away.

" _Fire mission complete."_

With the bombardment confirmed complete I gave the greenlight and quickly fell in behind the 42nd Havoc squad who were already rushing forward into the blizzard. I'd known that the Armiger Legion's Havoc squads were good, their reputation had preceded them. But seeing them in action had truly hammered home that they weren't just good, they were excellent. I probably would rate them somewhere around the equivalent of an N4 if I were to compare them to Alliance troops, which made them better than the majority of CryNet Inquisitors. The 128th Havoc Squad under the command of Sergeant Linmus had managed to reach the ground with only a single casualty and had been immediately swarmed by the ceph. By the time Titan and I had reached them, they had almost managed to punch a hole through the ceph offensive and retreat only slowed by two injuries that they had suffered along the way. With the combined might of Titan, the 128th and myself we'd managed to force the ceph back, long enough for us to slip away into the blizzard.

They'd then proven crucial in the rescuing of other inquisitor and Havoc teams and when we'd linked up with other Havoc squads I'd quickly realized that Linmus' squad was just a run of the mill havoc squad, and that the rest of them were just as capable. Their jump jet boosted mobility was key, able to traverse short distances and elevation at a speed that rivaled that of the nanosuit. While the inquisitor's armor and shields were stronger than that of the Havoc's armor, their mobility allowed them to constantly flank enemies and find new cover and firing positions.

Against a conventional opponent, they would have had no trouble coming out on top. The ceph on the other hand, were far from conventional, their mobility almost on par with that of the Havocs, with comparable armor and superior weaponry and numbers. The only thing that we really had going for us was that the Ceph air support had been nullified as our own interceptors had come down from space to engage any ceph scouts in the air. That meant that we had orbital supremacy against the ceph and could call in orbital bombardments to soften up ceph fortifications before our assaults.

However, the ceph didn't make it easy for us to capture the landing zones, even after the bombardment, as reports started coming in from the various units participating in the assaults. Already I could begin to hear the desperation setting in on some of the less experienced inquisitor teams as they fell under attack. In contrast, the more experienced inquisitors and the Turians remained calm and cool. A testament to the incredible discipline and likely experience of the latter and experience of the former.

The saying the only time you will see a turian's back is if he's dead rung extremely true, as even when a group of ceph troopers burst forth from the snow in the midst of the 128th, the havoc troopers didn't even begin to panic, instead jetting off to the side, avoiding the strong arms of the ceph and catching the robotic troopers in a deadly crossfire while they swiftly maneuvered themselves into cover behind various rocks and boulders. My own rifle joined those of the turians as within a few seconds, we had taken down all of the ceph. Yet we didn't have any time to relax as more ceph began appearing out of the blizzard.

I started jogging forward as shards of ice began pinging off of the nanoscale layer that had formed protectively on the surface of my suit. "Armoring up!" I called out, taking down the trooper I was shooting at with a hail of armor piercing rounds before being forced into cover before my energy reserves reached critical.

" _Guardians east flank! Brace yourselves, hard push incoming!"_ Duviscus, one of the havocs, called out.

"I'm on it! Be ready." I responded vanishing from view and began picking my way through the battlefield towards the east, sprinting from cover to cover cloaked, concealing myself behind boulders or in deep snow drifts to recharge my energy reserves. By the time I reached our easternmost flank, the ceph assault had begun in earnest, with what looked to be fifteen troopers, covered in the glowing turquoise energy shield being projected by five ceph guardians hiding behind the ceph they were shielding. I knew from experience that those shields were nearly impenetrable to anything that we currently had with us, short of an orbital bombardment. However we were far too close to the ceph for that, as they crossed the distance between us and them far too quickly. Already Linmus was being forced out of the way of the ceph push. Throwing myself to the ground I remained as still as possible and waited as the ceph approached. With how fast the ceph were moving it didn't take long for the shielded line of troopers to pass me, one of them passing half a meter to my right. Waiting for just a few seconds more I rose back up, made my way over to the southernmost guardian and pulled out my shotgun. Sending a quick warning to the havoc's, letting them know which of the troopers were about to lose their shields I took quick aim and fired.

I had modified my marshall to fire armor-piercing shards, capable of shredding through the armor found on ceph troopers at point blank range. As ceph guardians were pretty much regular troopers only with their weaponry replaced by a shield generator their armor remained more or less the same as their offensive brethren. Additionally, the thickest armor was found as with most things on the front of the guardian with the back being protected only by a minimal amount of plating.

So when I fired my shotgun, the armor-piercing shards of tungsten ripped directly through the weakened armor of the guardian, taking it down in a single blast. Sprinting over to the next guardian I jammed the muzzle of my shotgun into it's back and fired again, the point-blank shot tearing a gaping hole and blasting the ceph forward half a meter before it ploughed into the snow. By now the ceph were reacting to my presence, as the remaining guardians and some of the troopers turned towards me. My third shotgun blast struck the front armor of the next guardian catching it off guard while I sprinted towards it and drove my fist down into it, making a considerable dent in the metal. While the guardian reeled from the impact I grabbed it and spun it around so that I could fire my shotgun into it's weakened rear armor.

" _ **Energy regeneration exceeding baseline parameters."**_

I glanced at my energy reserves to note with satisfaction that even though I was maintaining my suits armor, the energy gain was larger than the drain that was being used to deflect the occasional shot from the ceph. Over half of the previously shielded troopers were now undefended and easy prey for the havoc's who tore into the ceph leaving them no chance to fire at me. I had two more shots from my shotgun which I used to bring down the next guardian and when my hud flashed an overheat warning I let go of the marshall with my right hand and pulled out my Majestic pistol and aimed and fired it thrice at the last guardian, which sputtered and fell to the ground, it's shield had dissipated by the time it hit the snow. I fired the remaining three shots at one of the surviving ceph troopers, taking one of its arms off at the base. I holstered the pistol and brought my shotgun back up as I watched the remaining ceph fall to the combined fire of ten turian Havoc troopers.

" _Thanks for the assist Wraith,"_ Linmus called out.

" _Was it just me or did it seem like the ceph seemed to be a bit slow in that engagement? I was fully expecting all those troopers to turn around and tear you to pieces."_ Duviscus asked.

"A little upgrade courtesy of Hargreave." I answered with a grin. "I managed to tap into the ceph's energy field, drain some of that. Gave me more energy and made them a bit slower apparently."

Any response to my words was stopped as Prophet's voice called out over the comms. " _Cavalry's arrived. Raptor let's show those ceph who's boss."_

" _Thanks for the assist Raptor. We've encountered heavy resistance to the north."_

" _Understood Titan, Just hold tight."_

It would take another few hours of grueling fighting before the Landing Zones would be deemed clear enough of Ceph to provide the all clear for the main invasion force to land. Five hours after Meteorfall had been given the green light the first transports touched down on the surface of noveria. By then the blizzard had lifted, revealing countless fallen bodies, staining the snow blue, green and red. Total losses during Meteorfall would not be known for some time, but initial estimates indicated that just over half of the vanguard survived with roughly half of those having been injured. The rest had been killed either during the drop, or during the heavy fighting to secure a landing zone for the rest of the invasion force. Their sacrifice would however secure a beachhead, without which the invasion could not have proceeded as well as it did.

* * *

 _A/N: Huge thanks as always to Shadowangel32 for betaing this chapter._

 _The next couple of chapters will be detailing the retaking of Noveria from a few different PoV's. It's currently shaping up to be around chapter 6 or 7 that Noveria will be finished, at which point there will probably be one more chapter before Shepard wakes. As it is, we will be diverting from canon in a relatively major way over the course of NE:TCC instead of merely rehashing the same events from the game, merely with a couple minor modifications. It should end up being alot more interesting and I can't wait to begin to post some of the stuff I already have done._

 _As always please don't hesitate to leave feedback, it's the best way for me to improve my writing. Additionally I'm going to try and keep to a biweekly update schedule, the consistency should help me in my writing process._


	5. Chapter 4

" _Council forces have successfully landed on Noveria following Operation Meteorfall earlier today. Thousands of CryNet Inquisitors and Turian Shock troops managed to secure a beachhead against the ceph in an extremely successful orbital drop. The ceph were caught unprepared for the action allowing the highly trained drop forces to clear out ceph installations allowing for the invasion force to land much closer to the overall target of Peak 15 than what would otherwise be possible. Our frontline reporters indicate that ceph forces have been forced back by the valiant actions of our troops out there in the field. Our thoughts are with our troops on Noveria here at Citadel NewsNet, may you all come home safely."_

* * *

"Phantom Wraith here to see you, General."

"Send him in, Corporal."

"Yes, ma'am." The guard gave me a quick nod and stepped aside granting me access into the prefab command center.

"Operative Wraith. You and your phantoms saved quite a few of my men today." General Velirian walked over to greet me with her hand extended.

I shook her hand without hesitation, giving her a firm shake, making sure that I didn't accidentally crush her fingers in my grip. "Just doing what we need to, General. We weren't expecting the ceph to be that ready for us though."

"I don't think anyone was. We've increased security and implemented additional encryption just in case your suspicions are accurate."

"Good precautions to take. How go the preparations for the push north?"

"Smoothly." She answered, stepping back to the table, above which was displayed a holographic map that displayed the surrounding environs. "More troops are landing every hour. We're still clearing the area of ceph to allow the engineers to establish the fortifications, but I expect that we'll be ready to begin the push when the armor lands in a few hours. Unfortunately, I don't have a good accurate idea of ceph troop strengths up north, they're jamming the fleet's sensors, preventing detailed scans. I need scouts to move north and place scanners to get me access to the intel I need."

"You want the phantoms to place them," I stated.

"Correct." General Velirian nodded, "they are primarily passive sensors that relay their data via tightbeam bands. It should allow them to remain undetected by the ceph for as long as possible. I've sent you the information packet on their operation and any considerations that you will need to take into account for their placing."

I gave her a quick nod. "We'll get it done."

"Excellent. Now, as this operation is currently under my command, it will proceed using Hierarchy Doctrine. I trust that that will not be an issue?"

"Certainly not. You will find that we will have few problems adjusting. Phantoms excel at completing difficult missions."

"Good. Because you will be receiving many of those over the course of this campaign. You will be acting as advanced strike units, hitting at targets of opportunity behind enemy lines. Additionally you may wish to warn the rest of your compatriots that if the need arises I will task you around the clock. Sleep may end up being something that you will be receiving in extremely short supply."

I nodded "Not to worry general, we have already prepared ourselves for that. We know full well that we may end up getting little to no sleep over the campaign, and have set up accordingly. You did an excellent job preparing your men, they seem to be extremely well prepared for what they are facing. I expect that if this continues on as it is now, we will be finished here by the new year. "

"If things continue going as well as they are. If there's one thing I know, it's that things rarely stay that way for long. I've granted you full access to our armories. I know that CryNet equips you lot with the best equipment available, but you may find something of value in our stock."

"Thank you, General. That is extremely appreciated. Is there anything else that you would like to discuss ma'am?"

"No, you're dismissed, Phantom. Brief your teams and inform me when you're heading out."

* * *

Alcatraz grunted in surprise as he fell, his right leg sinking through the ice below him with a loud crack. _Typical, he thought. Of his entire team, he was the one to break through the ice. Leavenworth would never let him forget this. Damned salarian never gave up a chance to rib him._

He froze, waiting to see if the ice would support the rest of his weight and a moment later his radio crackled to life " _Alcatraz, you alright?"_

"Stay back!" He risked the slight twist necessary to look back towards Chino. "I don't know how much weight this ice can take. Stand back," He warned, giving the rest of his team a moment's warning before with a loud roar his jetpack engaged, propelling him upwards out of the hole in the ice and back towards solid ground. During the preparations for the return to Noveria, CryNet had augmented all Inquisitors that were participating in the engagement with Jetpacks. The overall weight of the GHOST armor meant that they weren't particularly fast or mobile in the air, indeed it usually made Alcatraz feel like a brick that someone had strapped rockets to, but he couldn't argue that having the extra mobility was worth it. It did make traversing difficult terrain that much easier. _Besides_ he thought _There was definitely something terrifying about a heavily armed brick, weighing about two tons, rocketing towards you._

A turian sergeant stepped up beside Alcatraz. "You alright?"

Alcatraz nodded, "Yeah I'm fine. Ice wasn't able to hold my weight apparently." He added unnecessarily. "I think my team may have to go around it."

The sergeant nodded, glancing back towards his squad that had settled down a little ways back. "Albatius, check the ice, the earthquakes may have weakened it. Make sure it's safe for us to cross. Carefully!" He added as a private jogged forward past the two and began carefully stepping out onto the ice his omni-tool active and scanning.

"We'll regroup with you on the other side," Alcatraz told the squad leader. "It shouldn't take us much longer than an extra ten or fifteen minutes or so."

"Sounds good. We'll-"

"Sergeant Variscus? I've picked up something! Some kind of metal object buried in the ice."

"Have you scanned it for explosives, Private?" Variscus called out.

"Yes, sir. No signs of explosive material. Just very faint energy readings."

"Spirits," Sergeant Variscus cursed softly. "We're going to have to identify this thing before we can continue. Wouldn't want to step on a ceph mine-"

Sergeant Variscus was interrupted by the private who called out, his voice coloring with unease "Uh, sir? I'm getting stronger energy readings. I think it's doing something!"

"Fall back!" Variscus ordered, motioning for Albatius to return as the rest of the Rikers fanned out and raised their weapons in preparation for whatever was to come.

Private Albatius had just taken three steps when, with a shower of ice and blood accompanied by a loud buzzing sound, a metal arrowhead about half a meter length long, burst out of the ice and through Albatius' chest, then without any hesitation darted towards Alcatraz and Variscus. Alcatraz started swinging his rifle around, realizing as he did so that he would never manage to bring it around in time, nor that he would even have a chance of hitting the small object even if he could. It was just too small and too fast. Giving up on bringing his rifle around Alcatraz fell to the side attempting to avoid the dart. The dart apparently wasn't targeting him, instead, it continued on past Alcatraz, giving him a split second to thank his lucky stars when there was a pained gurgle from beside him and Alcatraz realized that Variscus hadn't been so lucky.

"Contact!" The shout came from behind Alcatraz, accompanied by the immediate staccato of gunfire as the soldiers behind him tried to shoot down this new buzzing ceph weapon. Yet Alcatraz's attention was not on the dart behind him, instead, it was on the dozen or so other spikes that had burst out of the ice and snow in front of the platoon which were now bearing down on him like a swarm of angry hornets. He wasn't able to react before the spikes flew overhead. Scrambling to his feet, Alcatraz spun around and raised his weapon to try and shoot one of the things down, when he stumbled forward as something hit him in the back, his shields absorbing most of the blow. A quick glance behind him revealed that a group of ten ceph troopers had also burst out from underneath the ice and were quickly closing the distance between them and the attacking platoon.

Swinging his rifle around, Alcatraz opened up on one of the troopers as he tried backing up. But he was only one man, standing up against ten ceph troopers. He managed to bring one down, then another, and then a third! But he had forgotten about the strange buzzing spikes that were slaughtering his unit behind him. Apparently, he had drawn enough attention from the ceph that one of them had decided to turn around. All that Alcatraz felt was a heavy thump in his lower back and then his right kidney burst into pain as the spike, travelling too slowly for his shields to stop it, tore it's way through his body. His shields fell a moment later and shards of ice started to pepper him, some of them piercing through the weaker parts of his armor to rend through the flesh and bone beneath. Alcatraz blinked his mouth open in a wordless howl of pain as he slowly pitched forward, losing the energy to stand. As the snow rushed up to greet him his last thought was how much ammunition he was giving Leavenworth, he would die to an oversized ceph bee.

* * *

" _There's another one,"_ Venom said as the ground shook underneath us with the faint tremors of a distant earthquake. " _Did we ever get any intel on what's causing them?"_

" _Tectonic activity triggered by the bombardments is what I've heard."_ Predator answered.

" _Great. Now I have to worry about a volcano erupting beneath our feet, in addition to the ceph trying to murder us all."_ Scorpion commented.

" _I doubt they will trigger a Volcano."_

" _A massive fissure under my feet then. The point is that I now have to watch out for whatever new things the ceph decide to throw at us, and the ground opening up beneath me. What do you think, Devastator? You're our resident geologist."_

" _Did you realize that it was new year's eve last night?" Devastator replied, voice coming through after a couple seconds, sounding almost distant and distracted._

I glanced over to my right where I saw the marker indicating the position of Devastator hidden underneath the snow about a hundred and fifty meters away.

" _Uh no? I can't say that I did,"_ Mammoth responded from further down the line, clearly taken by surprise by the sudden change of topic.

" _It's my son's birthday in ten days."_ Devastator said, " _I have a feeling we're not going to be done in time."_

" _Ah, shit man. I'm sorry. He'll be six right?"_ Scorpion asked.

" _Yeah. I promised that I'd be there. We were supposed to be done by then."_ Devastor snorted " _Hell it took us a month to get this far. We should have been able to cover this distance in a week."_

" _I'll tell you what. We'll light a fire under the asses of the ceph. We've almost reached port hanshan. Then we'll continue to steamroll north until we reach the lithoship."_ Predator said.

" _Do you think the Squids even have asses for us to kick?"_ Mammoth mused.

" _They've got to shit from somewhere. We'll kick em there."_ Devastator responded.

I interrupted them as I cast a quick glance on my map. "Cut the chatter. Target is approaching. Orbital scan is showing that column composition is the same. One hunter, six seekers, six scouts and twenty troopers with five guardians on overwatch. They should be cresting over the ridge there in a moment."

" _Copy that. Mammoth, you set?"_

" _Launcher is loaded and ready Predator. Let's hope that they don't have any buzzers with them."_

" _Charges are set as well, sir,"_ Devastator answered. " _The moment they crest over that hill, they're in the killing zone."_

" _Good. I've got an artillery barrage timed to land directly when the convoy is in the killing zone."_

" _First vehicle is cresting."_ Mammoth cut in quietly as I spotted the dark shapes coming over the ridge, in stark contrast to the pristine white snow. " _You would think that they might switch up their color schemes to something less dark, try and blend in a bit."_

I slowly rose to one knee, the cloaked JAW resting on my invisible shoulder as I sighted in on a slightly oversized scout, a so-called Seeker that was crawling along on six legs in the fourth position of the convoy.

" _You know that our nanosuits are also dark right?"_ Scorpion asked dryly.

Mammoth snorted in amusement. " _Yeah, but we can use active camo and cloak. They can't."_

" _And thank god for that. Could you imagine if the ceph learned to cloak? That would be a damned pain."_

" _Clear comms. Convoy is reaching the ambush location. Splash ETA thirty seconds. All phantoms check in."_ Predator ordered as two timers appeared on my HUD, one counting down until the estimated time of the first shell landing and one counting down until when we were to engage the convoy. They were nearly identical.

"Wraith is set," I said, once the four other members of Firehawk had checked in.

" _We are cleared hot, gentlemen. When the timer hits zero you light em up."_

I tilted my head slightly to get a better view of my target in the distance as the timers on my HUD counted down to zero. My trigger finger tightened on the trigger, squeezing it ever so gently until finally when the first timer hit zero my cloaking died and a 73mm rocket burst forth from the launcher in my hands. At key points across the valley, behind boulders or from under the snow four similar rockets burst out and streaked towards the ceph convoy. It took just over a second for my rocket to cross the seven hundred meter distance between me and my target where it impacted at exactly the same time as the other rockets. The first charge detonated, melting a hole through the seeker's armor, allowing the remainder of the rocket to penetrate through into the hull of the seeker where the second high explosive charge detonated, shredding vital systems, damaging the power core and killing the ceph piloting the seeker before it even realized the convoy was under attack.

An instant later, the wrath of turian artillery struck, high explosive rounds impacting all along the convoy, shredding the armor of the ceph infantry and damaging weapons, arms and other easily damaged components in addition to sending great plumes of snow into the sky. Interspersed among the unguided shells were two Eveningstar guided anti-armor shells.

Developed by Muraviov-Zaitsev Industries the M1839 Eveningstar is a 170mm guided artillery shell used extensively by the turian military against heavily armored targets. Capable of piercing the armor of all modern tanks, the Eveningstar was the turian's way of dealing with heavy armor and as such were deemed of perfect use against the ceph. While it was considered wasteful to use the shells against ceph seekers and scouts it was deployed against the first hunter that was encountered by the citadel forces. To the astonishment of everyone watching said hunter had actually managed to survive being hit by the eveningstar, merely suffering damage to a single leg. Following that, it had become standard procedure to fire two of the armor-busting artillery shells at every hunter encountered, which was usually enough to fully disable two large ceph walkers. In the cases that the hunter wasn't disabled, it's armor would be weakened to such a point that they would either retreat or be easy prey to smaller anti-armor weapons.

My vision magnified as I watched the cloud of snow that had settled over the ceph convoy after the artillery barrage, searching for any sign of movement that some of the ceph had survived the ambush.

" _Anyone see any movement?"_ Predator asked after a few moments of silence.

" _I got nothing."_

" _Alright. Egress West and head to the RV. We need to link up with Rav-"_

" _Wait! I got movement coming out of the cloud! It's, oh god!"_

"The Hunter is still operational. Barrage did negligible damage." I reported calmly, taking note of the different color scheme this hunter was sporting. Most ceph had the same kind of look to them, dark grey-blue armor with light blue lights running along the edges of armor plates and joints. This Hunter, however, was now gleaming with orange light instead of it's standard blue, and red energy was being projected out from its armor.

" _Ah shit. We're going to need bigger guns."_ While we had encountered other ceph sporting the same orange light that denoted the ceph "elite" units, we had never encountered an orange hunter up until now.

" _Good thing we have em. Firehawk to Fearless requesting immediate fire support! Target just shrugged off an entire artillery barrage and two Eveningstars."_

" _Copy that Firehawk. Acquiring target. ETA Twelve seconds."_

" _Buzzers incoming!"_ Venom shouted a warning as a cloud of the spear drones erupted from underneath the armor plates of the hunter and flew towards us like a cloud of angry wasps.

There was an immediate chatter of gunfire as we all began firing indiscriminately into the mass of deadly drones. Buzzers themselves were rather fragile, a single shot was generally enough to bring them down. Their primary defense was not in armor but rather in their speed which made them almost impossible to hit. A phantom was generally able to hit them relatively accurately as our nanosuits increased our reactions and our speeds to such a degree that it made hitting individual Buzzers no longer an impossible task. However, in this case, accuracy and reaction speed was not required as the sheer amount of the drones meant that we just had to aim at the cloud and fire with each of our bullets bound to hit something. Yet we knew that our rifles were not enough to stop the Buzzers before they reached, but we were merely buying time for Mammoth.

Two seconds later, the first Buzzers had put half of the distance between us behind them when with a roar akin to that of a Dragon, Mammoth's Tornado Minigun had reached peak rotation and opened up on the cloud. At 6000 rounds per minute the minigun, when carried and fired by a Phantom, was able to dish out an insane amount of punishment extremely accurately. The power required to handle the recoil and keep the Tornado accurate was immense however, usually completely draining the suit energy of a phantom within ten seconds. Additionally the Tornado chewed through ammo blocks extremely quickly requiring constant maintenance. However usually a single phantom with a Tornado was capable of taking down an entire platoon of infantry, or in this case, completely wreck a cloud of Buzzers. Thinning them out to such a degree that the rest of us could switch to picking off smaller groups or individual drones with grenades and rifle fire before they could reach us.

Just as Mammoths energy reserves went critically low the Hunter that was still crawling its way towards us vanished for a second time as the world went white and the ground rumbled and shook as the Bombardment from the _Fearless_ arrived. Great plumes of snow rising a hundred meters into the sky completely blanked out the horizon accompanied by shards of ice and rock flung skyward. Almost immediately the Buzzers lost control as they no longer received the orders from their control systems, likely contained within the hunter itself. The now uncontrolled Buzzers continued on their last given course. Some hurtling off into the air, others smashing themselves into the ground burrowing deep into the snow and vanishing from our sight.

Then the rain of ice and rock started, stones ranging in size between small pebbles to boulders the size of a person began falling from the sky, the lighter and smaller ones being carried by the wind towards us forcing us to armor up and keep an eye on the sky and dodge any stones that could prove dangerous.

After a couple of minutes of dodging falling debris and no further movement coming out of the cloud thrown up by the bombardment, Devastator spoke up. " _I think that thing is definitely dead now."_

" _Agreed. And I'd rather not stick around much longer. C'mon. Let's get moving. Raven's waiting on us."_

"You go on Predator. The prism wants intel." I said looking off at the cloud of snow that obscured the location that the hunter had been.

Predator hesitated " _You're going to be on your own. You know that right?"_

"I do."

" _Out here, without any backup? Friendly forces unable to get to you quickly?"_ Scorpion asked incredulously. " _Raven needs us, we won't be able to hang around nearby."_

"O not concern yourself with me Scorpion. Go regroup with Raven." I ordered "I can take care of myself. Besides, better just one of us get lost gathering intel rather than an entire team. Besides I've still got a couple of tricks up my sleeve."

" _You're insane."_ Predator declared, " _But Scorpion is right. We need to regroup with Raven."_

"Then go. Don't waste any more time. I'll follow as soon as I'm done here. The ceph don't have anything capable of killing me."

* * *

"Do any of you know where Blackburn is?"

When he was met with a chorus of no's Mitchell let out a heavy sigh as he sat down joining Niel Matthews, Alexander Corde and Ernesto Reyes in the mess hall.

"Hey Ryan, that bad huh?" Titan team's second in command asked.

"Yeah." Mitchell nodded looking over at Matthews. "Apparently Wraith has gone MIA. He and Firehawk ambushed a convoy a couple of days ago. It had a new kind of hunter that apparently managed to shrug off eveningstar rounds."

The three men around the table whistled. "That's impressive." Corde said after a moment of silence, "Eveningstars do not fuck around."

"There's a reason the turians have what is considered to be the best military in the galaxy, and it's not just their infantry," Corde commented.

"Though their infantry is something else as well," Matthews observed.

"Oh absolutely! Much as I hate to say it, they're far better than alliance marines or CELL grunts. Did you see Murdros' platoon yesterday? Two seekers pop up outta nowhere, flanking them. No panic at all. They reacted perfectly and I think they only lost one or two guys to them. Gotta give props to where they are due." Cord gave a pair of turians walking past their table a friendly nod.

"Oh, definitely. Turian's know what they're doing." Mitchell agreed. "Anyway they managed to bring the orange hunter down with an orbital bombardment, then when they were leaving, Wraith stayed behind. Apparently with orders to investigate the wreck from the prism. He hasn't been seen since. We stopped getting his signal and Hargreave won't say anything about it."

"Huh. You'd think that he'd be doing whatever possible to find out what's going on." Reyes said.

"Oh he's talking a bunch about figuring it out, but the General can't afford to send anything." Mitchell leaned forward. "Now I've never really met Hargreave, or talked to him much, but I heard Director Duncan, may he rest in peace, Director Teems, and a couple of the phantoms including Wraith himself saying that Hargreave wasn't one to give up when he couldn't get his way. He didn't seem to be like how he was described."

Corde tilted his head to the side. "You think that he knows where Wraith is?"

Mitchell lowered his voice. "I think that not only does Hargreave know where he is, but I think that the two of them are doing something that they don't want anyone else to know about. That's why I wanted to know where Blackburn is."

"You want her to try to find out," Reyes stated.

"Are you sure that you're not just grasping at straws?" Matthews asked dubiously. "Why would they be doing something that they don't want anyone else to know about?"

Mitchell shrugged "There could be plenty of things that they're up to. I noticed that every now and then Wraith will go off on his own and come back a day later. It's been pissing Lockhart and Velirian off to no end but they can't really do anything about it. Velrian because she knows she can't really stop him and that she needs the phantoms much to her annoyance and Lockhart… Well, Phantoms aren't technically in his chain of command."

"What do the other phantoms think of this?" Mathews asked.

Mitchell shrugged "The only ones that were there were Nova and Firehawk's team lead, Predator. They both seemed worried, but they didn't say much."

"Strange, I would expect Nova to be extremely worried. Maybe she knows something," Corde mused.

Mathews shook his head "You can't see it that way. The phantoms haven't rested since the campaign started. Their suits are probably messing with their emotions."

"Maybe." Mitchell conceded, inclining his head slightly "I don't know enough about the nanosuit to know for sure."

"Atlas!" the Titan team lead looked up to see a group of turians approaching. A smile appeared on his face as he recognized some of them.

"Sergeant Linmus!" Mitchell said, standing and stepping forward to greet the Havoc trooper. "How's the 128th?"

"Still sinking our talons in ceph. How about you? Where have you been deployed?"

"Sector Nine trying to take peak twenty. Squids haven't been making it easy."

"You're telling me. We just got back from an incursion up north with Raven and Firehawk. We managed to get within eyesight of port hanshan before the ceph forced us back to Blacktail section to get settled. They got some new toys to play with. Some kind of plasma cannon. Thing was melting seekers like there's no tomorrow."

"You mean the PAX?" Mitchell asked "Yeah, I heard about that. Makes you want to join up huh?"

Linmus chuckled shaking his head. "Fancy toys aren't nearly enough to pull me away, Mitchell."

"A pity. We could use more soldiers like you."

"Why do you think the hierarchy is keen on keeping me?" Linmus flashed the Inquisitor a grin before his expression became somber "Listen, I don't know if you've heard, but Wraith is MIA. He was supposed to be with Firehawk and meet up with us for our recon trip, but he never showed up. Then the phantoms reported that he went MIA."

Mitchell sighed sitting back down with a heavy thump. "Yeah, I heard. I was called into a briefing about it. What was the initial reaction of the phantoms?"

"Seemed to be fairly normal. I don't know for certain, I was scouting at the time. I only heard when I got back to our camp. They seemed pretty worried or angry, I'm not sure. I have a hard time reading regular human emotions as it is. Trying to understand phantoms is something else entirely."

Mitchell nodded in agreement "Especially if they don't want you to know what they're thinking. Then you have no chance in hell, not without getting them out of their suits at any rate."

"At least he's only MIA though," Linmus murmured. "Means there's a chance that he's still alive."

Mitchell hesitated for a moment regardless of his own personal opinions on Wraith's actions, Mitchell knew that to tell Linmus his theories would be to invite drive an unneeded wedge between CryNet and the turians. "If I know Wraith and I like to think that I do, I'm sure that he'll turn up at some point just fine. I need to tell you about what what happened when the ceph first woke up and how we managed to escape."

Linmus turned to look at the inquisitor with renewed interest. "That was Titan? I heard that Commander Shepard came to rescue you."

Mitchell felt a slight twinge of sorrow as he launched into the story of how they had been sent to noveria to investigate a possible breach in the CryNet accords only to stumble directly onto a newly awoken ceph hive and their subsequent rescue by the Spectre and attached phantom.

* * *

 _ **Accessing CryNet Intelligence Database…**_

 _ **-Turian Hierarchy-**_

 _ **-Turian Armed Forces-**_

 _ **-Weapons, Armor and Equipment-**_

 _ **-M1839 Eveningstar-**_

Developed by Muraviov-Zaitsev Industries the M1839 Eveningstar is a 170mm guided artillery shell used extensively by the turian military against heavily armored targets. Extremely accurate and capable of piercing the armor of all modern tanks, the Eveningstar was the turian's way of dealing with heavy armor and as such were deemed of perfect use against the ceph. While it was considered wasteful to use the shells against ceph seekers and scouts it was deployed against the first hunter that was encountered by citadel forces. To the astonishment of everyone watching the hunter had actually managed to survive a direct hit by the eveningstar, merely suffering damage to a single leg. Following that, it had become standard procedure to fire two of the armor-busting artillery shells at every hunter encountered, which was usually enough to fully disable two large ceph walkers. In the cases that the hunter wasn't disabled, it's armor would be weakened to such a point that they would either retreat or be easy prey to smaller anti-armor weapons.

 _ **-Charybdis remnants-**_

 _ **-Combat Units-**_

 _ **-Buzzers-**_

First encountered during the retaking of Noveria in 2184, the Ceph drone designated as a "Buzzer" is a 47.3 centimeter long spike equipped with a powerful thruster. Often likened to a self flying arrow, a Buzzer will ram itself at high speeds at its targets, and is capable of piercing through most infantry armor, killing or maiming the wearer within. Despite it's high speeds the Buzzer is extremely maneuverable and is able to dart between many targets in rapid succession. Experience has proven that the buzzers are even able to take advantage of weaknesses in vehicle armor to target the crew within.

While buzzers only have enough power for a minute of sustained operation, they are more than capable of decimating large amounts of infantry on their own if left unchecked. On it's own a single buzzer is easily capable of wiping out multiple squads of infantry, however they are almost never deployed on their own. Most buzzer encounters have been in groups ranging from smaller groups to massive clouds consisting of hundreds of buzzers, capable of wiping out entire companies.

Buzzer's have proven to be extremely fragile to gunfire yet the buzzer's speed and maneuverability makes hitting an individual buzzer without nanosuit enhanced reflexes next to impossible. In response to encountering the buzzers on Noveria, turian General Velirian ordered the deployment of GUARDIAN laser defense turrets, that quickly proved themselves capable of targeting the small fast moving drones and destroying them.

When encountered in the field respond with area of effect weaponry. Explosives, extremely high rates of accurate fire, flame and electrical attacks have proven to be extremely effective. Buzzers are often found buried in the ground, acting much like proximity mines. During firefights, Buzzers have been seen accompanying ceph vehicles, making these units far more dangerous to infantry. Extreme caution must be taken when dealing with buzzers, preferably always ensuring that any encounter with the drones is within the safe envelope of a GUARDIAN turret.

* * *

 _A/N: So you will probably notice that neither the Seekers, nor the Buzzers ever showed up in Crysis canon. I quickly realized that I wanted some additional units for the ceph during the noveria arc and took some fairly heavy inspiration from the Scrin in C &C. I really love C&C and I'd noticed a few interesting similarities between the ceph and the scrin in terms of unit design, that would fit, maybe with minor changes. Thus the buzzers. _

_Anyway let me know of what you thought of the two CryNet Database entries that I added at the end there, I think that I will continue to add them whenever I add something new into the universe._

 _Well that's it from me for now, huge thanks of course to my beta, Shadowangel32, for her continued excellent work and as always, if you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to leave a review or send a PM._

 _~LEGION_


End file.
